Photo courtesy of Liliana Sydorenko
Minimal snack leadership team. Ansh Prasad (left), Ryan Teo (center) and Liliana Sydorenko (right) are posing for their debut MNML Air Dried Beef.
Minimal Snacks wants to revolutionize the snack industry through the simple “less, more” marketing.
Ryan Teo (McCormick ’21), founder of MinimalSnacks, said he developed the company’s ideas after attending a lecture on popular snacks in engineering and entrepreneurship classes.
“Think about Doritos. Where in the real world is the orange triangle?” Teo said. “I really thought there was space to bring back food that really resembled the real world.”
Biltong, a popular dried meat in South Africa, was the key to realizing his vision, Theo said. After discovering food through family friends, Biltong became the basis for MNML Air Dry Beef, the first product of minimal snacks.
Jerky contains only three ingredients: red wine vinegar, shiitake mushroom extract, and salt.
“It really started in Biltong,” said Theo. “I thought this super-flavored and healthy snack that no one knew for some reason could be brought to American consumers by adjusting the recipe.”
This product also contains 0 grams of sugar and 23 grams of protein in each bag.
Co-founder and CEO Weinberg’s senior Ansprasad said he was attracted to Biltong’s uniqueness when he joined the company.
“I love meat,” Prasad said. “Bilton was something I had never heard of, and I was excited to try it.”
Minimal Snacks launched Kickstarter on January 3rd, with an official goal of raising $ 5,000, but Teo said it hopes to reach $ 15,000 or $ 30,000 by the end of the campaign. .. Within two hours of launch, the company exceeded its target and is currently receiving $ 15,000, but the one-month campaign is still going on.
Weinberg Jr.’s Liliana Sydorenko, product development leader, said the success of the campaign was due to the support of family and friends. After achieving its original goal, Kickstarter began organically promoting the campaign to users of sites unfamiliar with the company. Currently, strangers are donating to the company, Sydorenko said.
“33 percent of our money comes from organic traffic,” Sydorenko said. “They find us, love what we do, and support us.”
The success of the Kickstarter project makes it easy to show suppliers that they have a demand for their products, Teo said.
For now, the only way to buy a product is to donate to Kickstarter and pre-order it. Those who pre-ordered on Kickstarter should expect a light meal by March, Prasad said. He added that he plans to launch an online store after the campaign ends in February.
Once the MNML Air Dry Beef is officially on sale, the team plans to extend minimal snacks beyond jerky.
“One possibility is to create other flavors that are included in MNML’s air-dried beef line,” says Sydorenko. “Making sweet snacks with minimal ingredients in superfoods like energy balls and protein bites. You most believe I’m experimenting in the dorm now.”
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twitter: @GiangiulioDavis
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