Elisabeth Galvin: Co-Founder of Stellar Snacks

Episode 910

Sometimes the biggest opportunities are hiding in the most familiar categories.
On The Kara Goldin Show, I sit down with Elisabeth Galvin, Co-Founder of Stellar Snacks, the mother-daughter-owned company reinventing one of America's most classic snacks: the pretzel.
We talk about how Elisabeth and her daughter Gina built Stellar from scratch, why they chose to take on the complexity of manufacturing themselves, and how unexpected flavors like Maui Monk and French Dijon helped them bring something completely different to the category.
Elisabeth also shares what it's really like to build a company with your daughter, why Stellar puts taste ahead of trends, the story behind its unique Artist Program, and what more than 30 years as an entrepreneur have taught her about spotting opportunities and building brands that last.
This is a great conversation about entrepreneurship, family, food, and having the courage to rethink a category everyone else takes for granted. Listen here or anywhere you get your podcasts. 🎧

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up. That I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be. We just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don’t get knocked out. Knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control. Control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin Show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go! Let’s go! Hi, everyone, and welcome back to the Kara Goldin Show. Sometimes the biggest opportunities are hiding in the most familiar categories. Today’s guest is Elizabeth Galvin, co-founder of an incredible brand called Stellar Snacks, and this is a mother-daughter-owned company reinventing one of America’s most classic snacks, the pretzel. So Elizabeth has been a serial entrepreneur for more than 30 years. In 2019, she decided to launch with her daughter Gina an incredible brand, Stellar Snacks, creating unexpected flavors, building their own manufacturing operation, and bringing a completely different point of view to a category that hadn’t really changed much over the years. So I cannot wait to talk about how they have built Stellar Snacks. Absolutely love what they are doing, as well as just talking to Elizabeth about being an entrepreneur for many years and probably seeing quite a bit of change over the years in industries, but also the grind of actually being a founder and what it really takes to build a brand that can last, right? So, Elizabeth, welcome, and so excited to meet you.

Elisabeth Galvin 2:05
Well, thank you so much, Kara, to to have me on your show. I’m really impressed by you as well, and what you have done also in the industry, being also a founder yourself. But very thankful for you to have me today on the show, so thank you. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 2:22
thank you very much. So when we talk about, let’s start with Stellar Snacks. Congratulations! What an amazing, amazing brand you and your daughter have built. So, how would you describe it to someone who maybe isn’t familiar with Stellar Snacks? What does it What does it stand for? How is it unique?

Elisabeth Galvin 2:41
Stellar snack. What it stands for is Stellar. I think that we are trying and have been every day being focused on creating, developing, baking, packing, and delivering to our consumer something that extremely Stellar. What I mean by Stellar is from all the start, from creation of the recipe, the ingredient sourcing, and the flavor profile, and also with the addition of having our artist program, is to really deliver in a package, good, a beautiful Stellar product, which is a pretzel, which in our view Gina and I found was a little stale. So we want to give them a little bit of a kind of a renovation stage and kind of bring some of our French twist to it. Is why we decided to go with a twist, we also believe that twist is a good connection. So it is connecting the farmer to our people who also with us in culinary develop the seasoning, the artist, and deliver a Stellar pretzel to a Stellar consumer who is looking always for something better for them and better for the planet.

Kara Goldin 4:03
So you come from a family of French farmers, came to the U.S. from France. How much of the way you think about food today comes from how you grew up? I always think that the journey, when when you look back and think about you know whether you take things from different parts of your life. What do you think about that has that you’ve been able to bring into Stellar? That’s relevant, I guess, throughout either your work life, your personal life, your journey thus far.

Elisabeth Galvin 4:38
I would say the first things is taste. I was born in France, like you mentioned, and actually on the side of my dad was farming, and my grandfather. So I was at the French market, the French market, fresh market there, and selling produce when I was young. And then my brother was a bakery chef, and we had a bakery in. Out of France, and one thing that everyone that had the opportunity to go to France is the taste. It’s not one thing that you buy, purchase in France that just doesn’t taste just wonderful. And I think that when we create Stella and its our promises, is our focus is to make sure that number one, our pretzel need to taste just absolutely wonderful, and and that has been a real focus. Besides being better for you, is the taste. So I think that having a huge forward thinking on taste is very important, and that comes maybe from my French background, but also is to be picky on sources ingredient because you know you can make the same pretzel, same recipe, and some other people are trying to do that, and it doesn’t taste the same. And I think that the way that you are sourcing your ingredient and the way that you are baking and the baking process make a big difference. The same way that when somebody do an apple pie somewhere and and you decide to do your own apple pie, why mom apple pie will taste better because they know best. But I think that’s just being very disciplined in a sourcing of ingredient and the baking process is probably what I brought from France. It’s it’s very important to us for every chef from the restoration or culinary. Like when we meet with some chef in the U.S. who are very successful, we just went to the Malibu Chef Celebrity Event just a week ago, and everybody feel the same way. It’s it’s very very proud of coming up with a recipe that is unique and also have certain technique. So the technique is what I think that we’re bringing to the U.S. is not just do a pretzel like kind of 123 done and this is good enough. We are not in a good enough business. We are into excelling at everything we do and very proud of of that technique.

Kara Goldin 7:15
So interesting when you were describing your journey, you talked about being a chef, and you’re a chef, and you’re an entrepreneur. Not a lot of entrepreneurs would actually speak about themselves and sort of what they’ve created in that way. So it’s fascinating to me, and I do think clearly the taste is is so critical. Gone are the days where I think you can launch a product, you know, even be a serial founder that has done other great things, unless you really nail the taste, right? And you get what consumers want. What have you seen over the years as it relates to that? That maybe consumer taste has changed. Has it gotten more picky? Things that are maybe 20 years ago were acceptable today are not. How would you think about that?

Elisabeth Galvin 8:11
Well, I think the consumer, and especially after COVID, because a lot of people had to to have more time at home sometimes, but also to to to cook at home, and I think the consumer is getting more and more educated about ingredient, and and I love that because more consumer are going to be educated about ingredient. More company like Stella Snack are going to succeed because they can reappreciate the level of work that we do behind the scene to be an industrial bakery, which is non-GMO Project Verify, which is vegan, which require certain ingredient to be mixed properly, and I think that the consumer always want the best product, the the best tasty product. But I believe today consumer have some choice, and also because unfortunately with inflation and the price of the snack in a grocery store, I think they have a choice. And if they have to have a snack, you know, they want to have a snack at home and with their kids in their school lunch or at the office, and they have to choose between something that tastes great and also feels good for your body and good for the planet, has a good purpose, or maybe a taste that is just okay and doesn’t have any of the attribute. Doesn’t is not non-GMO Project Verify. It’s not all natural. And I think that people or consumer today are much smarter about trying to invest into themselves and invest into a product that is better for you. But I don’t think people want to compromise with taste. And I think a lot of sometimes new brands come up with a great packaging. A great product, but when you eat once, you will never buy it again. And I think that this is very-it’s-it’s one thing that I always say to young entrepreneur who come and CGG and I had a show is like, you know, what what should I do if I want to trade my own brand? Is that just make sure everybody love your product, and and make sure kids try your product. I mean, what we do every time we come up with a seasoning is we make sure the three year old, the four year old, the five year old, you you know like the product. If they don’t like the product, you have no chance because kids will always tell you the truth. And now it is when they get into the spicy ingredient. We don’t really go the three and the four, but we do go to the 10 and 11 and the 12. But if they want to try something spicy, because they do start to develop their palate. What I love in the U.S. since I moved here in 1990, right around the age of my daughter today is the palate of people, or what people are wanting to eat. It’s much more elevated than when I came here. So I see that it continue to to expand, and I love to see that. I love to see consumer in the U.S. who are more demanding about what they’re expecting when they go to a grocery store, and is why you have all these new store, you know, who started the last 20 years the Whole Food and spread market, and it’s a lot of you know Amazon is selling a lot of things online, which is premium product, and I think the premium product category in CPG is really growing because consumer understand that when they need to invest in them and they need to invest in a premium taste product that is good for them and also has a good purpose, but a true purpose. I think people now can see when some big companies sometimes explain what their purpose are, but they are not authentic. And what we saw with our consumer when we go to roadshow at Costco, when we go to demo at Cougar or Target, and and we talk to moms and father and and children. And when Gina was in San Francisco at a big concert with the Maya Mount costume and meeting with a lot of people in San Francisco. And people say, “Man, you do exist. You know, it’s truly a duo, mother-daughter with an incredible team. But we’re authentic, and everything we say on paper, we perform and we back it up, and I think that’s really important.

Elisabeth Galvin 12:42
I think people today, in my opinion, I’m sure I’m I’m that way, but I think a lot of people are that way. Just want more authenticity and validation, and be able to make sure that that brand, when they say that they are like a present with a purpose. What is our purpose, and how we validate that, and and also have direct connection with the founder. So we’re not just like in the back of our packaging. We do exist. We work every day so hard every single day. So and they see that on our social media. So I think that to answer your question a little too long, I’m sorry, but I think authenticity is really important in the poem today. Yeah, I absolutely agree. So, the SKUs that you launched with in 2019, what did you launch with, and how has that changed today? So, when we launch with a lot of discipline, and thank you so much to our director of cell at the time, Aidan, my colleagues, we launch with Whole Food in Florida division, and we launch with Omari Monk, our simply Stella, and Bolin Irby, which are still very strong. They were our first three flavor, and we got really patient. And a lot of friend of mine, our founder of other CPG company, and some made some mistake to grow faster, too fast, too quick. And we really want to understand what the consumer was thinking about our product, so we waited a few months to see what the velocity will go, what people will say, and and you know four five months later when we get those you know sign that our product our velocity was climbing and people need more of different division, then we start to expand and it’s it’s wonderful today to know we’re in like over 20,000 store, and National with Target, National at Kruger, National with we are on Publix. We are a national with Sprat Farmer Market, which is as being such an amazing retailer to back us up, and it is wonderful journey. A dream come true.

Kara Goldin 15:01
So you’ve been in the industry as an entrepreneur for over 30 years. When do you know that a product is a real business, right? So you have launched multiple products over the years. When do you know that? Obviously, you mentioned velocity, but when do you make that next jump to sort of go into other stores or, or you know, expand in a way? And sometimes that involves really digging deep into, you know, do you have the margin? Do you have do you have the people right? Do you have the money, right, to be able to do all of those things too? But what would you say is is kind of what you’ve seen over the years is really really critical. Like, when do you know you can make a business out of something?

Elisabeth Galvin 15:54
I think the discipline to listen to the consumer, and when you know the consumer who having purchasing your product in a division come to you online and say, “I bought your product. I was in Boca Raton, but I live in Spokane. And where can I buy your product? And you start to get some of that activity. Plus, you know, we were on Alaska Airlines, which was a wonderful opportunity for us to sample our product. And a lot of the passage on Alaska Airlines will email us and say, “I’m in LA. Where can I purchase your product? I’m in New York. Where can I get your product? So you start to have an app data. What you know the consumer is asking for the product, and also when they do ask, they also kind of give you some intro. But what do they like about Stella? And then you know that you know what it’s ripe. It is ripe to plant more trees and have more opportunity for more retailer. And the retailer, as you know, now have access to a bunch of data like Spin and all of those type of data that they have access to. They can see the movement into a brand, and so they contact us and they say we need you on our store because they know that the consumer is asking for our brand. So I will say it’s kind of a connection between kind of a three part. The consumer always start first and asking for a product, and then the retailers see the data and they see that people are were moving and were a good velocity in in division, and so they come to us, and then we come and we got together, and we make sure we have the production capacity and the distribution discipline to distribute to all these hotelers nationwide. One thing I will say that is really important for us now. Everyone is different. When we started, our price today is pretty much the same price we had in 2019, anywhere from 599 or 699 on promotion for 499. I think that we are being we went through COVID. We have been through tariff and growing with a second second factor in with huge investments, really important to me as a mom and a founder is for me good food should not be a luxury, should never be a luxury because I grew up with my with my grandfather eating only organic vegetable and and fruit and eating really good food in France, while you can have a full meal today in France for maybe eight euro. And when I came in America, it kind of like start to just bug me a bit about why we spend so much money with organic food and why were we able to grow in the U.S. an ingredient that sometimes we like we import our salt from Italy because I love the salt from Italy, but all our farmers are in the U.S. and I think that whatever grows our mother nature, it’s all Mother Nature, and it should not be as a premium price. So we try to always keep our snack. It should be competitive, not because we are competitive to the competition. It’s just because I believe that in the consumer, a mom who goes shopping, a dad or an office who go shopping for snack at home, they have a budget, and they need to make sure that okay, with those snack, I’m going to be able to to to to have a great party, or I’m going to make sure I have lunchbox for my kids, and we just have to be have that respect, and not because it’s premium that we’re going to to make it, you know, a really high price. I mean, we have people sometimes who buy our product who we sell it double, and they. And I think it’s great because they are in retail store with very high real estate, so they spend a lot of money to be in those very trendy store in New York or in Los Angeles. So they have to pay and make a margin for staying in business.

Elisabeth Galvin 20:16
And we love to see small owner, very special store buy our product and resell it double because they love it. It just is a perfect product for the offering. But also, we love to help other small business to continue to grow selling our product. But I think that it’s important that we continue to grow, and we are launching some new products that we will continue to stay within reasonable price. Again, for me, food should not be a luxury, and especially good food.

Kara Goldin 20:55
I love that. So you launched Stellar with your daughter Gina, and how did you decide that you would go into business together? And has she always kind of been involved in other business aspects? Or I, I have some entrepreneurs in in my house as well, kids that that I think that they naturally just grew up with understanding, you know, pulling product out of the back room of a Target store, you know, being going to different stores with me, and so this came very naturally to them. But I’m curious about what your story is and how you and Gina decided to go into business together.

Elisabeth Galvin 21:41
So this is a beautiful question, and it just so natural and exactly to what you just said, Kara is. Gina was born a day before I got the United contract with my other company, Delis, and I got a phone call. I just come home. I just came back, and Gina was one day old. And the buyer called me and said, “I win the economy class for United Airlines, and that was my other company. And I was buying Pretzel from a big company that I compete against now. But and I was doing the micro mini United bag pretzel, and it was incredible. And so Gina pretty much has been in a factory. So I had a factory in Reno, Delize, and we’re a packer. So we were bagging and packing everything for his customer and Wino Air and many other airlines, and her cousin name in her little bed was in my office. She she knows in the background having the noise of the packaging equipment, people coming into my office having audits. She has been to every presentation pretty much because I homes Gina for a few years, and so she used to travel with me into presentation with all the airlines. She was preparing the table. She was assisting in that, and which is beautiful because I just came back for airline show in Dallas just few weeks ago, and it’s really beautiful to know some executive in airlines actually knew Gina means they even saw me pregnant, and so they know Gina since she is like she’s born, and and so I think that in the back between, but I never thought at the time that she will. I want her to have her own voice, and I want her to do whatever she wants to do, and she choose the path to go to study at Loyola Marymount, and marketing was her big. You know, she was very interested in marketing and studying women, gender, and she brings so much, so much depth. And also because she’s young, she. I mean, I learned so much from my daughter. She’s she’s such a old soul, but I wanted to just decide whatever she wanted to do. I was not telling her. However, I was when I had the idea when that big company I was buying three house shut down their plant in California, which was the source of my pretzel. It was in July 2028. I just realized that oh my gosh this is a disaster I’m not going to be trailing truckload of truckload of pretzel from the east coast and they were the only plant baking pretzel on the west coast so I called Gina and I said Gina we have one big decision to make is we have to open our own pretzel company and bake our own pretzel, so we can actually stay in business. And beside that, I mean, we could have stay in business, but our price would have been ridiculously expensive, bring all those pretzels from the east coast. And then also, it’s a great opportunity for us to innovate because we. Used to tell our proper kara, please, can you do that for us? Can you do that for that? And the answer was no. We’re only going to do those products for you, and that’s it. And so it was really hard. Like I feel like I had somebody put a, you know, a band on my mouth for like you know over 20 years, and every time I had a great idea, they push it down, and I didn’t have the budget to do anything, so I was a little bit assertive and take it because I had no choice. And so I’m like, gosh, this is like it’s like the good and the bad. The good is we have an opportunity to be the only present manufacturer on the West Coast, and then we can now achieve all these things that we do at home with our pretzel that we buy and and we add seasoning to it, and we do all these things because we want to do something different. And nobody has been listening to us on the big manufacturer side, but now we can be innovating.

Elisabeth Galvin 25:55
And at the same time, is we can continue to grow and have more employee and continue our micro little society when when we believe that we can create something special for people who work with us because we’re truly running Stella as a family. And the bad thing is, which is bad and could be good, Is the risk? The risk is, I have to go to the to SBA. I have to go to the national bank. I need to fill up an SBA loan. I do. We didn’t have $5 million sitting in our savings account. Even if I work all my life, I I was never able to save that much money because we always reinvest in a business, and and 5 million there is a lot of money. So, but that means now we have to put a home in collateral. Everything we own, a little retirement plan. That means that if we win, great. If we don’t, us the horses and the dogs are going to be living in our little trailer, and which I’m cool with because we can always start something else. And Gina say, you know, Mama, I’m I’m good. Go ahead. I think it’s a great idea. So I went to the national bank, fill up the form, and a month later, we got approved from the SBA loan, and that is very special. And it’s funny that I have your interview today. I just signed another big loan with them just now, but not an SBA. Same bank, the national bank, and for my other line that I’m adding another one in Louisville, and when you have a bank who understand entrepreneur and have your back, it’s very important. And I think that it is a few bank in this country would do understand, and some would don’t. So be careful, shop around, ask with a founder. But I think that that opportunity was perfect, and we’re still the only pretzel manufacturer on the West Coast, out the west of the Mississippi.

Kara Goldin 28:07
That’s incredible. So Stellar Snacks. If somebody has not tried the brand and they are listening today, and what should they try? Which SKU is like as a first-time Stellar snack, is there one skew that you that’s a must that they must try?

Elisabeth Galvin 28:30
So I I love Maui Monk. I have a special on Maui Monk because I love a savory and sweet, and it has that Maui onion, you know, sweetness to it. It is a wonderful product. So I will say, yes, being on Southwest Airlines and ASCA Airlines, we got huge. I mean, it’s one of our top sellers with two other items. So I think my mark will be my my my go-to, and we all love it. Let me tell you. And after that, I think French Dijon is my second one. And personally, as French, I associate yellow mustard with hot dogs, so I didn’t want to have a pretzel with yellow mustard. And I really want kind of the Dijon, like the taste, a little bit deeper of the mustard. So French Dijon is very, very good, and bolen herby is my third category. It is flying on southwestern lands as we speak. We are doing some rotation, and what I love about bolen herby is it’s made with onion and garlic and spice. And we know a lot of our customer when we when we design Bolen Herbie is to be added for on the top of like salads, so people are using that on the top of when they do a Caesar salad. When they do even if something with Basic or something with Dill or something, so we even if it’s called Bolen Herbie, we try to make. When you try, it has that very garlic dash onion, but the spice that we’re using is not going to overstay the flavor of your salad. So you are completely as safe to use that as a topping, as a snack on the go. Delicious, but also on the topping of any salad that you use-basil, dill, autim, or rosemary-it will go with every every of those salads.

Kara Goldin 30:30
I love it. Well, congratulations on Stellar Snacks! You’ve done such a terrific job, Elizabeth. Thank you so much for sharing so much about the brand and your journey, you and your daughter Gina are doing such a great job. So I’m so happy, and I love the brand. I’ve had it on all of the airlines that you’ve mentioned through my founder journey, myself, and all the travel that I’ve done over the years. So really love putting a face behind the brand as well. So for everyone listening, check out Stellar Snacks. Go grab a bag or 10, and definitely we will see you next time on the Kara Goldin Show. Thank you so much, Elizabeth.

Elisabeth Galvin 31:17
Thank you so much, Kara. Thank you everyone for listening. Thank you.

Kara Goldin 31:21
Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin Show. If you would, please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Goldin. I would love to hear from you too, so feel free to DM me. And if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal best-selling book, Undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building. Hint: We are here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now.

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