Kelsi Petersen: Co-Founder of Kelsi’s

Episode 762

On today’s episode, Kara welcomes Kelsi Petersen, Co-Founder of Kelsi’s — the better-for-you dessert brand making indulgence clean, crave-worthy, and full of purpose. A trained raw-food chef and CrossFit athlete, Kelsi created her first Brownie Batter Bites while teaching raw food classes with her mom in rural Idaho. What started as a passion project turned into a brand that’s redefining what it means to treat yourself well.
Kelsi shares how her mother’s health journey inspired the original recipe, how she teamed up with co-founder Cassandra Hume to bring the product to life, and how the brand is creating mission-driven desserts that give back — donating 5% of profits to ALS research. We talk about the challenges of launching a food brand, the importance of staying true to your values, and what it takes to scale a snack that tastes like dessert but fuels you like real food. From early product development to leadership lessons and what’s next for Kelsi’s, this episode is packed with insight and inspiration for CPG founders, wellness enthusiasts, and dessert lovers everywhere. Don’t miss it!

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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 today. I’m joined by Kelsi Peterson, who is the co founder and the recipe mastermind behind Kelsi’s the better for you dessert brand known for their cult favorite brownie batter bites and Kelsi story began in rural Idaho Falls where she taught raw food classes with her mom. We’ll get into how that parlayed into building this company with her co founder, Cassandra. And I’m very, very excited to hear all about that, but they have built a brand that honors real ingredients, indulgent taste, and a mission driven business model that donates a percentage of profits to ALS research in honor of her mother. So I cannot wait to talk all about how you’re launching and scaling this incredible brand that you two have built. So Kelsi, welcome to the

Kelsi Petersen 1:46
show. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me on. I’m excited to be here.

Kara Goldin 1:50
Very excited. Okay, so let’s start with the actual brand, Kelsi. So how is it different from everything else in the I guess better for you dessert space,

Kelsi Petersen 2:03
yeah, I think it really stands out in the fact that there’s a lot of better for you treats out there, and there might be better for you bar treats actually good for you. And every ingredient in it really does have nutrients in it. So it’s nice to find a brand that or a product that’s like, wow, this tastes really good. And the ingredients like everything I would just find in my pantry and make

Kara Goldin 2:22
it, yeah, definitely. So the the I would say, where did you come up with the name? But obviously, it is your name. How did you decide to well, it is actually, but how did you decide to name it Kelsi’s

Kelsi Petersen 2:38
It actually started. I started Kelsi’s Kitchen when I was, gosh, 14 years old. So it was just very like, oh, people want my my stuff. I would just say, All right, just pay Kelsi’s Kitchen. It just kind of was what I started. I sold lots of different raw food recipes, and the brownie batter bites are the ones that stuck.

Kara Goldin 2:58
Yeah, I love it. So you have a co founder, Cassandra. So tell me how you two connected.

Kelsi Petersen 3:07
Yeah. So as I mentioned, I kind of started this as a side hustle. Kara talked about how I taught raw food classes in Idaho Falls. That whole thing started when I was 12. So I’ll take it back to the very beginning to get the story of how Cassandra and I met. But when I was 12, my mom had some health issues where her intestines just totally flipped over, and she had to find a new way of eating. And my mom was very intense, and anything that she did, it had to be the very best. And so she she realized that the doctor was like, well, after you’ve had the surgery, like your body, you’re gonna have to take pills of enzymes to digest any food, because you’re it’s just totally different in there now. And my mom knew enough about about nutrition. Be like, oh, actually, if I don’t cook anything, it naturally has enzymes in the food. And that led her to a raw food diet. I have seven older siblings, and she was like, man, in order to feed these guys, and six of them are boys, I’ve got to make some really good food, just fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds. And she went to California, actually, to Living Light Institute there in Fort Bragg is where it used to be. I don’t know where it’s at now, but we went there, and I she came back, actually, and started making this amazing food. I mean, she was making lasagna, she was making ice cream, all just fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, none of it was cooked. And I, as a 12 year old, was blown away. I was like, wow, this is so cool. And I could see, I mean, I was young, but very observe a lot, and it’s like, Man, I can see a change in her and her health and just her demeanor was different. And I was like, I got to learn what she’s doing and figure it out why I’m here at the house. Even though I was only 12, I was the youngest, and I saw my siblings leaving, so I kind of realized I need to, I need to learn fast. So I went with her to California and to Puerto Rico and learned how to make this food. And we came back to Idaho Falls, which is very small, and I. Taught, started teaching raw food classes and people, people after the classes, knew that I knew how to make it, and were like, Hey, can you make me this, this and this? I really love it, but I don’t want to make it myself, so I would do that. But the thing that they really love were the brownie batter bites, what we’re currently selling, and that’s what they had asked me to continue to keep making. So I I keep doing it, and I tweaked the recipe all the way up until this point of making it the best that it could be with just the simplest ingredients. And I realized I’m like, man, if there is a need for this in Idaho Falls, there’s got to be a need elsewhere. So I started kind of opening my eyes. I was listening to how I built this at the time, and I was feeling really ambitious one day, and I was like, you know, I’m going to go down to the juice bar that just opened up and see if they would like to sell these. And they did. They loved it. They’re like, this will be perfect. So I got scrappy. I was like, Okay, well, can I use your kitchen on the off hours of your juice bar so I could start making these? And it kind of took off. And I got into, I got into another grocery chain here in Idaho Falls. And right at that time, my mom was actually diagnosed with ALS, and I didn’t really know about it until the Ice Bucket Challenge, and then my mom got diagnosed with it, but she had a type of onset that it started in her throat, so she couldn’t start talking. We’re trying to, like, figure out the test, and it came back as ALS. And she had three months to three years to live. And unfortunately, it was only three months, but in that time, she really motivated me. I was, she’s just like, man, like, you’ve been training for this your whole life. You really got to go for it. And I remember going to Brougham to check on the shelves, to see where my product was, and no product was. I was like, how, you know, who knows about me yet? Like, I just was selling my my bites and like, a little brown paper bag. And I went back to my mom’s house that night, and all the chocolates were in her freezer, but she was passing them out to all of her friends as Costco samples, just getting everybody hyped about it. And unfortunately, passed away shortly after. But right then, about a month after my mom passed away, Cassandra, my co founder, found me on Instagram. She had just moved from San Francisco and was living in Idaho Falls, and she found them at that same little grocery store hidden in the back and this little brown little bag. And she’s like, Yeah, it’s actually really good, like she was trying to figure out what was happening in Idaho Falls, because she used to San Francisco. A lot of fun things happen now, and it’s not as, not as common in Idaho Falls to have a startup brand doing a healthy chocolate but she was very into it, and reached out to me on instagram if I wanted to have lunch, if I was interested in having a partner, and I was I wanted someone that had a little more business background than I did. I’ve had a lot of experience in the kitchen, but I needed someone to compliment me. And it’s worked out great. It’s been, you know, six years of us working together, and, yeah, our skill sets really complement each other.

Kara Goldin 7:49
And so you give a percentage of the profits to ALS research. So was that always the business model? I mean, did you, how did that all come about, that you just decided that this is what you wanted to do?

Kelsi Petersen 8:05
I think Cassandra and I actually decided that together, I I had started just a few months before she joined. And at the time when I started, I didn’t have a long vision plan. I was just kind of going day by day. And, like, all right, this is kind of taken off. Let’s keep going. And then as we were talking about the longer term, we’re like, you know, it feels right to have that be part of the the bigger vision,

Kara Goldin 8:25
definitely. So the so you two make this decision that you’re actually going to take your recipe and get it out to people beyond your community in Idaho. How long did that take to actually get the packaging, the business plan, like, really understand what you’re what you’re doing. I mean, you started, you were a little ahead in the sense that you had the recipe and you knew what the focus was going to be. But then to actually, you know, get the trademark, the, you know, all of the things that need to happen. How long did that take?

Kelsi Petersen 9:07
I remember on our lunch, actually, we were talking about this because it was in a bag. And she’s like, You know what? I really see this as a bar packaging and kind of laying the bites down in a bar instead of a bag. And I think that’s when we first were like, okay, like, we need to start. Like, how do you even, I remember talking about it on our lunch, like, how do you even, like, go about doing this? And we found that was called the flow Wrap Machine. It’s like, okay, we need to, we need to find someone that has a flow Wrap Machine to get the packaging out. But all the meantime, while we were figuring that out, we were still selling everything in our brown bags that we were doing just by hand at a local commercial kitchen in Idaho Falls, and then shipping out, or hand actually hand driving, I think, because at the time, the recipe had to be refrigerated, so it was really tricky to ship. We’ve currently made it so that we can send an ambient which is great, but yeah, we were hand delivering everything as we were trying to figure out getting everything into a bar. But I. I guess, from the get go, we just, we didn’t really pause anything. We just kept making changes as we went so, and I had the idea to go to the juice bar, and then I think within like two weeks, I was in the juice bar. So it’s quick.

Kara Goldin 10:14
What has surprised you about launching the company? Either that something that came that was positive out of it, or something that was just super challenging, like, you just didn’t realize it was going to be so difficult.

Kelsi Petersen 10:30
That’s when I was kind of thinking about this a while ago. And I was like, I might have, like, some, I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but I always felt like I could do something, and then I get into I’m like, oh, man, I maybe I overestimated, like, what this is going to be like, or my capabilities of doing it. I just kind of, like, jump into it and then start figuring out as we’re in the middle of it. I think it’s good to have Cassandra with me, because she’s probably a little better at, like, planning it out and whatnot. And so I’m just like, ours, just jump in. Let’s figure it out. And but it has its pros and its con. I think the hardest thing, I feel like we’ve been struggling is probably like, inventory and cash planning. It’s really tricky of getting the cash in and getting inventory and keeping that cycle going when you’re a small business and working with bigger distributors that have a lot of charge backs, which is really tricky, and knowing if you’re gonna get paid not get paid, and how to get that cash, and then, you know, make more inventory to stay on the shelf. So that’s probably been the hardest part. But I think Cassandra and I both believe that we’re meant to solve problems, like humans are meant to do that, and so we both, like, kind of put our heads together and figure out how to solve the problems. Yeah.

Kara Goldin 11:40
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, I and I think the, you know, the traction, too, is so key. I always say that it’s, you know, paying attention to your consumer and really trying to think about how, how can you make things better, right? Whether it’s changing packaging or changing a recipe, or, I think it’s just the listening skills too that are needed as founders, and also the you know, as my my husband and I co founded a company, hint, many, many years ago, and I remember my husband’s saying he would have never done it with if it wasn’t, you know, somebody like me who was willing to take risks, right? Like you almost need that balance. But the co founder aspect is also can be really, really tricky. So how did you like, what would you say about finding a co founder? Like, if somebody’s out there listening and like, how do you create that balance and and what, what should you look for? I guess,

Kelsi Petersen 12:54
think for us, like, some of the hard things that have happened, I think back to those experience, experiences that we had. I’m like, Man, I think if one of us started blaming one of the others for that, it would have caused a big riff. So my biggest thing like, find somebody that tackles the problem with you instead of start blaming another person. Because I think that’s when a lot of the a lot of the bad energy starts arising, you know, when really you’re both in it together, so you both have to figure it out together and so to start blaming each other, definitely.

Kara Goldin 13:23
So when you talk about, you know, your label, and it’s, is it considered a clean label? I don’t know if that’s the the actual definition of it, or is it just raw or what? What is the definition?

Kelsi Petersen 13:38
Yeah, is there an actual definition for a clean label, I Well, and that’s what I was gonna say. That’s I don’t know, like, I don’t know. I feel like, for me, it’d be a clean label. But I actually feel like I should reverse this and start asking you all the questions about founding

Kara Goldin 13:53
a company definitely well, and it’s changed. And I think for from a consumer perspective, I mean, there’s these buzzwords, but what does it really mean? And so often, I think that so many companies have taken liberties with, you know, these labels where people who are actually trying to do the right thing with, you know, solid ingredients. I think it’s just it gets really confusing. But when you talk about what you’ve created, and obviously you’re so proud of it. It’s raw, all of those aspects of it. You know, how do you get, I guess, consumers to know and to trust and to, you know, you have two different audiences that are buying today, it’s the consumers, and then it’s also the people who are the gatekeepers, I call them, to getting you on the shelf at these various stores. But how do you get people to really understand a lot more about your product?

Kelsi Petersen 14:54
The best way is demos, like having people actually try it, like if they can actually try it. Then they understand like, Oh, this is good. Because I think just seeing our ingredients is almonds, is number one ingredient. Almonds, we do dates, coconut oil, honey, cacao powder, and then whatever else to flavor it. At first they don’t think of it being an indulgent thing. It’s more like a granola bar or something, but it’s much more indulgent and satisfies a sweet craving. So having people actually try it has been our number one, our number one strategy.

Kara Goldin 15:26
Yeah, definitely. And I think, you know, having success at a place like air one, for example, I always say when other founders have said to me, like, how do you get into the next one and get into the next one. It’s just, you know, what I found was that a lot of these other retailers were kind of Lemmings, right? If you were successful in one, then the others would start to follow as long as you showed up and said, How about it, you know, and, and I think gone are the days where launching a product that doesn’t taste good is is gone, and you guys have obviously nailed the taste profile as well. But when you think about like the feedback and some of the things that you’re hearing from either consumers or buyers, what what has been the most exciting to hear?

Kelsi Petersen 16:21
Yeah, well, we recently just went through a ton of changes, listening to customers and feedback and putting that into play, and it’s fun to see it now play out, because a lot of it our our past packaging had a brown chocolate drip, and it was kind of getting hidden in the shelves it was hard for people to find. One thing was, is that they didn’t know if it was supposed to be a sweet snack or just like a granola bar. So we added some dates to kind of make it a little sweeter, but still keeping it in this, you know, still healthy ingredients, and using everything that you just find in your pantry. And it’s fun to see that playing out. Also that it was melting very fast, and that was kind of a consumer issue of traveling around with it and the convenience factor and having the dates in there kind of solved it. So I was like, Oh, the missing puzzle piece. We found it. So that was exciting. And it’s, it’s fun to see it play out. And it’s, yeah, it’s, I think you were talking earlier about how you have to listen. I think another thing too, we’re learning is you have to be pretty agile and not so in stone, about one thing that you can kind of look back and not be so into it that you can’t see what’s happening. So I think having the agility to kind of not only listen, but then to follow through with what you’re hearing.

Kara Goldin 17:40
Yeah, definitely. And also not get so wrapped up in in feedback, because you’re, you’re always going to hear a lot of it, right? And people are, are going to tell you what you should be doing and trying to figure out, or you know, where you need to put the stakes in the ground right around what you’re doing today is important so you have four different skews Correct.

Kelsi Petersen 18:08
Yes, yep, we have a double fudge, a rich raspberry, a salty peanut caramel and a Mint Chocolate Crunch.

Kara Goldin 18:14
Is there one that you would say is kind of the runaway bestseller, or is it too early to tell

Kelsi Petersen 18:21
Yeah, the salted peanut caramel is our top seller. We recently just got the shelfie award for the Mint Chocolate Crunch, and that’s personally my favorite. We added some puff quinoa into it. People are wanting a little more texture, and we salt that by adding the puff quinoa. So that would be my personal favorite. But I do love them all,

Kara Goldin 18:41
yeah, no, it’s so they are so, so good. So thank you. When, when you look at, when you look at success. So what is success for Kelsi’s? I mean, what? What is when, when you think about launching it, are there? Is there something that you hit? Or what is the the marker where you say, Yeah, this is this? Is it? We’re really successful.

Kelsi Petersen 19:11
That’s funny, because I think that this is ever evolving for me as I when I first launched it, I was like, yeah, like, when we get into whole foods, like that will be success. And then as we’re into that, I’m like, No, actually, I think, like now that we’ve made a little bit of a change with our recipe, and we can, we can ship ambient success would be that people are ordering this there, or having more of a relationship with our customers, instead of just kind of being distant from just being in the store. So having more of an online presence is kind of like the marker right now, which I do think that it’s always changing.

Kara Goldin 19:44
Yeah, definitely, and I think it’s but I think you touched on something which is being able to continue to grow. It Right? You’re not stopping, right? And I think that that’s a sign of two. True entrepreneurs that you keep raising your own bar, right? Even when people around you, they might tell you, you know, you should go, do this. You should go and then you you go, achieve that, but you don’t stop there. You just keep raising your own bar, and which it sounds like you definitely have have done.

Kelsi Petersen 20:20
Yeah, yeah. I think in order to it’s CPG is kind of brutal, so I think in order to stay there, you have to keep evolving and changing and figuring out what you need to do. Yeah, yeah,

Kara Goldin 20:32
definitely. How have you found your most I guess, whether it’s an actual mentor or whether it’s like information to figure this out, because I feel like you two have both, you know, really rolled up your sleeves, and you’re co founding together, and you’re breaking down doors and being able to do things that maybe you never imagined you’d be able to Do, but you’re doing it. So how have you found not just the courage to do it, but also, you know, what you need to do next?

Kelsi Petersen 21:09
Yeah, honestly, that’s been a hard thing for us to know, because there’s not, like, a play by play of what to do. Like, you know, I I did a lot of CrossFit training, and I was like, Man, I love this. Like, I just have, like, this is what you have to do every day. And, like, it’s just a step by step, check it off, check it off. And that’s really hard with this, because it’s not like, I don’t have a check by check thing of what I need to be doing. So that is tricky. We have just kind of rolled our sleeves up and and gone after it. But I think that is always something that we’re looking for is like a mentor or someone to help us, guide us, if they’ve gone there, like, what would be helpful? But and what we have done is we’ve we joined SKU, which has been helpful. There’s a lot of mentors there that have kind of guided us and and pointed us in the right direction. A lot of the changes that we made this year were actually influenced by SKU. So that was very helpful. We also, we also are part of the startup, CPG, so that is also helpful. A bunch of other startups are getting together, and we can kind of bounce ideas off of each other. Kind of ask like, okay, when you struggle with this, what do you do? So both of those have been very helpful, but yeah, we’re always looking for people to mentor us.

Kara Goldin 22:14
That’s awesome. Have you raised money, raised capital to date? Or are you self funding?

Kelsi Petersen 22:20
We did friends and family, and that’s it. So as of we’ve just been self funding.

Kara Goldin 22:25
That’s terrific. So, so what advice would you give to other food entrepreneurs based on what you’ve seen so far and your journey and and like? Maybe it’s something that no one had ever told you. Maybe it’s maybe it’s like it, you know, I always say that when you come back to realization, you and look back on things that you didn’t do, or you wish somebody would have told you something that you think is really, really valuable. What would you say to that,

Kelsi Petersen 23:05
man, I feel like some of the lessons that I’ve learned, like through my CrossFit training, was that progress is never a straight up line, and it’s, if you look at the data points, it’s always up a little bit, and then it drops down, and then it kind of goes up, maybe a little past where you were before, and then you’re dropping down and you’re kind of and you’re kind of consistently dropping up and down. And so it gets really exhausting if you get too caught up in one of the UPS or one of the downs. So I feel like, and then you get almost, like, not addicted to the UPS, but you kind of like, need that next up, if you’re kind of craving that, instead of just staying consistent and be like, All right, this is just the process that this is how it works, like you go up down, you go up down, and you’re not getting too caught up in it, because then I think it becomes exhausting, honestly, and hard to stay consistent.

Kara Goldin 23:54
Yeah, definitely. So last question, what are you most looking forward to with Kelsi’s. You guys are off to a great start. You’re launching in all kinds of new stores. Your direct to consumer business is taking off. But what are you most excited about that is maybe consuming your time too, but also very exciting,

Kelsi Petersen 24:17
I would say, actually, just getting more of our online business going and connecting more with our with our customers, and, yeah, kind of getting that’s what’s probably consuming most of our time right now, because it’s a new thing that we can do. And so we’re trying to figure out the ropes of it and how to do our marketing, to push out that way, and how to, yeah, get more of the online store coming in. So that’s our focus right now.

Kara Goldin 24:44
I love it well. Kelsi, thank you so much for joining today. Your journey from creating this business and creating the treats in Idaho to building a brand that’s not only super yummy, delicious and. Purposeful is truly inspiring. And for everyone listening, head to Kelsi’s Kitchen.com to learn more and try the brownie batter bites, and don’t forget to share this episode with others as well, until next time on the Kara Goldin show. Kelsi Peterson, thank you so much for coming on and talking about Kelsi’s.

Kelsi Petersen 25:25
Yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks

Kara Goldin 25:28
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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