Opinions expressed by entrepreneurs’ colleagues are their very own.
All the company’s great ideas start with a problem. For Jo Weinand, the problem was that she loved Nesquika, but she hated how he felt.
“I grew up from things,” he says. “But when I started reading the labels, I realized that I shouldn’t drink it anymore.”
She got stuck inside during Canadian air-con, Weinand was bored enough to make Google, the way to make her own milk. She threw a cashew, cocoa powder, dates and water to her Vitamix and counted on something half -decent. “I did not expect it to work or taste good,” he recalls. But one sip modified all the things.
What happened next is a wild startup story that mixes poker, chocolate milk, star power and a latest kind of reality show. He breaks all this in the latest episode of One Day with Jon Przebra.
From Vitamix to Vegas
Weinand was already the owner of the restaurant, so she bottled cashew milk, hit a sticker with the inscription “Nutcase Milk” and put a few on the shelf. “I didn’t know what to expect,” he says. “We have just printed some labels and we were still making more parties.”
They sold out almost immediately.
“The coolest thing was that adult men enter, see chocolate milk on the shelf, light up and just bounce them,” he says. “And most of them were not typical of peanut milk.”
Other retailers began to ask where they acquire the product. Then the bulb caught fire. “I thought, okay, we can be here.”
Fresh product scaling was a challenge. North was only about about a week, and Weinand couldn’t find a colleague who desires to take them. After a 12 months of blind alleys, she was near resignation.
Then she went to Vegas.
Above Brunch, she told some friends about the milk she met. It turned out that that they had just launched a Venture fund for CPG. “I knew them from poker. I had no idea that they were doing it,” he says.
They invested $ 500,000 with a limit of $ 5 million, although it didn’t have a prototype.
Influential power
Weinand’s husband taught her to play poker, and for years they made friends with professionals. One of them was Phil Hellmuth, one of the biggest names in the game.
When Weinand told him about Nutcase milk, he tried a bit and went, becoming an investor. Then he said, “You have to talk to Ninja.”
For the uninitiated, ninja is an icon of games with hundreds of thousands of watching and a personal brand based on pure energy, massive streams and the loyal base of Gen Z. fans
Weinand sent him samples. “He tried and said,” I’m inside, “he recalls. They both associated with chocolate milk, Pokémon and health. “He wanted to advertise something he really felt good.”
She made him a co -founder.
Then Steve Aoki appeared. Weinand sent samples of the EDM icon of the new taste of Strawberry – now he is a cult favorite. “He tried chocolate and didn’t love her,” he says. “But strawberry? He said,” This is my jam. “
He also joined the team.
X means the place
With Ninja and Aoki on board snowball capabilities, including Linda Yaccarino, CEO X, Greenlighting Whising Weinand in a completely latest reality show broadcast on the platform.
“They are doctors that follow our startup journey – but viewers can actually invest in a company when the series is broadcast,” explains Weinand. “It’s a bit like Shark Tank meets a student, but with an accent.”
The first episode will fall on May 6 on X, with the final in June, which ends with a live crowdfunding campaign. “We have Waiting list Live now. If you get there, you’ll receive early access. “
NutCase will probably be the “child of the poster” of the latest series. “They wanted the founder, the CPG brand, a company managed by the creator-we checked all the fields.”
Don’t call that happiness
If all this sounds too easy, Weinand quickly said that the story didn’t start with Ninja, Vegas or the reality show.
“I’ve been doing it for over a decade,” he says. “This network, this credibility – was built long before Nutcase. And there was also a fight. The drink industry is difficult. We made mistakes. We were fucking. These are not all the rainbow.”
This time the difference is about the surrounding band. “The best part of building this business are the people I will meet and share this journey,” says Weinand. “There is no point in partying at the end.”