Making Oatmeal Sexy Again

Mylk Labs is a woman & minority-owned food start-up based in California. Born out of the need for convenience, founder Grace Cheng created a better-for-you oatmeal cup that uses only 4-6 ingredients, a lot less sugar and no added flavors-- ever.

Grace Cheng is a fashion model, first-time entrepreneur, and founder of Mylk Labs. Juggling two different career paths, Grace emphasizes the importance of eating healthy on the go and using the knowledge gained as a USC Alumna, she's now sharing her secret go-to breakfast while traveling the world as the face of many prestigious brands.

Transcript

Phil: 0:14

Welcome to Lost in the Supermarket. We all know in the food industry that our mission should be to share wholesome food that nourishes and fuels our body without compromising flavor, nutrition, or convenience. Frankly, that's something that we want every food company to follow. We need that. We need that for our health. We need it for our sustainability. We need it for just about everything on this planet. a few months ago, Grace Cheng reached out to me through an email and said to me, Hey, you know, I've got this fabulous product that I want you to taste. I want to tell you my story. And it's been a couple months with all my traveling and everything else that we've been able to get together. So Grace, welcome to Lost in the Supermarket.

Grace: 1:02

Thanks for having me.

Phil: 1:04

So I've tasted the product, I'm impressed. it's an oatmeal that just has a few ingredients, ingredients that I can pronounce. You know, you can microwave it right in the cup, so it's really convenient. It's delicious if you would, comes in a variety of flavors. Blueberry, apple, strawberry, coconut, and almond. My favorites are blueberry and coconut. Just to tip my hand here a bit, tell us, you know your background is not food. Your background is being a fashion model. How did you get into the food business and why? Oatmeal?

Grace: 1:44

hat's my favorite question, Phil. I don't think anybody grows up dreaming of creating an oatmeal company. Cause you know, when you think of fashion, it's like, you know, runways and all this glam and whatnot and food. You know, food has always been a huge passion of mine. I'm such a foodie, and to be honest, oatmeal is just my favorite-est thing in the world.

Phil: 2:09

Wait a minute. How can it be your favorite-est thing in the world? Oatmeal, at least before, before Mylk came on the scene, oatmeal is pretty boring. Even if you look at some of the oatmeals that are out there that do have blue barriers, stuff like that. I mean, it's pretty boring stuff.

Grace: 2:29

Yeah. I mean, it has a bad rap for being bland, kind of gross looking. I always tell people like, oatmeal is not the sexiest thing out there. And what we're trying to do is make oatmeal sexy again. Because here's the thing, throughout my crazy life of going to full-time business school, doing like just modeling, traveling the world, doing all the different shows, castings, just long, crazy months, to be honest, right? Oatmeal is the one constant that got me through my busiest days. And I say that with so much confidence because, you know, even after my first circuit of Fashion week, going from New York to London, Milan, Paris, the whole shebang, when I got home, the first thing that I missed was my oatmeal. And it was an insane experience, you know, like being able to walk for these big time brands that I grew up admiring my entire life. My first show that I walked was for Marc Jacobs. And so, as you can imagine, I was speechless. I was just so humbled by the entire experience. But somewhere along the lines, I just realized, you know, I've always been the kind of person that wanted to start my own company. When, you know, when you're a little girl...

Phil: 3:51

I don't. I remember when I was little boy, but never a little girl.

Grace: 3:56

When you were a little kid, you're always asked, who do you wanna be when you grow up? And I grew up with two entrepreneurial parents. And so I always knew I wanted to start my own business. I was always inspired by them. But more than anything, I never wanted to work for anybody else. However, little did I know that meant working double the amount that I would if I did actually just work for a different company. And you know, like I said, I've been eat, I've been eating oatmeal for almost a decade now. Okay. I cannot get sick of it. But I never opted for the nasty sugar filled, you know, artificially flavored oatmeals on the market. I always made it myself at home. And that's what Mylk Labs is, representing. It's my homemade daily oatmeal that I've been eating for so long that has nourished me through my hardest times. And I wanted to share that with the world because I don't think that we need to be consuming 20 grams of sugar first thing in the morning. I don't think that when, you know, real fruit, freeze dried fruit is readily available to us, why I would opt for fake flavorings. It doesn't taste the same. It doesn't give the nutrients that, you know, the real thing provides. And ultimately, I think it's more, it's way more worth it to actually pay more for these types of real ingredients than just, you know, take the higher margin, just sell whatever to customers. And I'm not in it for the money. I'm truly, truly a believer of, you know, food is medicine and it can do so much for you just if it's done right.

Phil: 5:33

So, Grace, I want to go back to your modeling and food relationship. You know, what we all heard, for years, and maybe it's true and maybe it's not true, is the way a lot of fashion models got through the day and kept their figures was basically having a spoon full of peanut butter. So how do we get from peanut butter, if that's true to oatmeal? And I know when you first came to New York, you know, you were in a tiny New York apartment with three other fashion models. One who was bulimic, and and so on. I mean, did you try to get them, you know, away from the peanut butter into the oatmeal?

Grace: 6:13

I think it was something where back then, that was my first experience in New York. It was a decade ago, over a decade ago. I was 17 years old. I was the youngest. I felt so new to the industry. I didn't, it was my first time experiencing something like that. And so, you know, I was very intimidated. I kind of kept myself and seeing stuff like that where the bulimic model, for example, she was sent home back to, she was from somewhere in south, I think she was from Brazil. And she was sent home because she was so skinny. None of the clients wanted to book her. But at the same time, she was so depressed telling our agent that nobody wanted to book her because she was too fat. And that complete body dysmorphia, right? She was super sweet. She was all that like, big time back at home. And she comes to New York, such a big city, so much competition. And she thinks the reason why she's not booking is because she's not thin enough. And so back then I was just starting to learn more about health and wellness. Actually, that's when my journey started. When I was 17 and when I started modeling, it caused me to just start learning more about how to actually nourish your body properly. Especially with the busy schedules we have. Our days are not eight hour days, their minimum 10 hours. And a lot of times it's on location or you know, crazy early call time, things like that. And somewhere throughout that process, I just started to read more food blogs and found this new love for baking and cooking and just learning everything about food. Granted, you know, like the first cookie that ever made came out like hockey pucks. They were not good at all. But as I, you know, taught myself more learned that food is kind a science things just started to taste really good. And when you start eating healthier, you feel better and you actually crave that are better you.

Phil: 8:19

And so, so you have this desire, you experiment in your kitchen. You enjoy food. How do you then turn that into a food business where now you know, you're selling in hundreds of stores around the country, Gelson's, Erewhon, Good Eggs, Bristol Farms, Central Market, Fresh Direct, on and on and on. You know, how do you go from there to here? And talk to me a bit about, cuz you know you're an entrepreneur, I'm sure that you went out and you met with these supermarket buyers and you said, Here, you know, I've got the best oatmeal ever. And they go, Ugh, I don't need another oatmeal. So talk to me about that whole experience.

Grace: 9:07

It's funny because coming into the food business, I had zero connections, zero experience, honestly. The whole thing was a learning curve. And even now, I'm always trying to learn more, educate myself, you know, sign up for newsletters, just learn from other people, connect with other co-founder or founders, and learn from their mistakes. That's my favorite way to learn. But honestly, I had no idea what I was doing. I guess, you know, along the way you kind of just pick up things that work for you and you realize, oh wait, you know, people reacted well to this pitch or that, and I'm even till this day, four and a half years later, I'm still revising my pitches like every single time. And I think it's funny because as a person who started and ran the company by herself for the first three years, I can only do so much in a day, right? And so most of my sales, I actually did remotely. There's a lot of people, not until like an Expo West or like a trade show where I actually met a customer of mine that I've been working with for years. And so a lot of it is email, like cold emails, picking up the phone and cold calling, giving the pitch. And I think people really can tell when somebody is passionate about what they're selling. It's not just like, Hey, like do you wanna buy my product? It's more like, here's why you need it. It's literally the best thing ever and here's why. And you tell them how not only are they gonna benefit, but their customers are gonna benefit how you're gonna move it off the shelf, what you're gonna do to support them in order for all parties to win. And so it comes full circle. Cause if they sell a lot, that means the customers like it and then they buy more from me and everybody wins along the way. You know, it's, I think really just positioning yourself in a way where this is not a vendor buyer relationship. This is a partnership between the two of us.

Phil: 11:12

Share with me the worst experience that you've had with a supermarket buyer.

Grace: 11:18

I mean, typical, you know, things are like just getting hung up on or being just having them be really rude. I wouldn't say luckily, knock on wood, I haven't had any just like ridiculously creepy experiences where I was just left speechless. But I have heard friends, which I won't tell them their story for them. I have heard friends where they have gotten and also Asian owned brands where they've gotten like racist type of feedback. Wow. Yeah. I maybe I'm just lucky that I haven't experienced something like that. But, you know, the worst luckily is just people be extreme to me and telling me, Don't ever call me again.

Phil: 12:05

Unbelievable. I mean, the food industry has a lot of great people in it. But also, I remember when I first got started and I was writing for my dad, there was a supermarket chain by the name of Wall Bounds out on Long Island and probably the, one of the premier retailers in the country. And I just graduated college. I was selling ham and cheese, not together, but, you know, canned ham and blocks of cheese. So I called on, at that time the daughter of Julia Waubaugh was Dave Karen, and he was head of merchandising and buying. So, you know, I came in my suit, you know, from college and, you know, everything that I learned about selling from, you know, college, I walk in and, you know, he, after waiting like three or four hours in the lobby and then, you know, he gave me like, I don't know, two minutes to do it. And then he said, Not interested. Get out. So what I was taught in college is, you know, on your way out, you turn around, you look, you know, sorrowful and you say, Well, could you tell me, you know, what, what I could do to really, you know, embrace it and, you know, get you to know it? And he said, Kid, get the hell outta here and never come back. So that's part of the food industry as well. And Dave, Karen was honestly one of the best merchandisers ever and one of the best buyers ever. And years later, I got to know him very well. But the truth is that being in the food business is a hard business. There's no question. And if you look at a category like the cereal category and the subcategory being oatmeal, it is somewhat overcrowded. So how do you break through, all those other products? How do you compete with a giant like Quaker who owns all the shelves?

Grace: 14:02

So adding to what you actually said earlier, I just remembered a story that I'd like to share you. I'll be real quick and short and sweet with it. So when I first started the company, I was 22 years old. I had no idea what I was doing. I had just graduated business school at USC not too long before. I think I graduated when I was 21. And, you know, I had gotten into Gelson's pretty early on, and I went in with a buyer, not a buyer, a sales rep training meeting, trying to pitch my products to the distribution company, which I'm not gonna name them, but you know, I come in, I'm the only Asian, I'm one of the only females and I'm, I'm young, right? And I'm Asian, so I look even younger. And so they probably thought I was like a teenager going in. And so I stood in front of everyone around this big table and you could tell that they didn't really take me seriously. They weren't really paying attention. And, you know, I gave my pitch. I told them everything that, like, all my best points about the products, and we were like, Okay, thank you. You know, at the end, like not much feedback. And you know, I think I experienced that a lot when I first launched the company. And it was something where, you know, I love it when people don't take me seriously and then I just show them with results because I go up there and I sell it myself. And that's kind of how I like went about the first couple of years in my business where, you know, even with buyers, and this, this connects to what you just asked me, you know, Quakers and all of that, It's, a lot of it is social proof and like if people want it, retailers can't say no to not having it. But also understanding that our positioning is different than a big giant like Quakers. And while a lot of products can be similar on the market, no two products are the same. And you, it's your job as the manufacturer to help people differentiate why yours is better. Whether it's, you know, a big reason or small reason, literally, you know, if you're able to get the point across as to why supporting Mylk Labs is better, whether it's, you know, we're a small company supporting smalls buying, minority owned, woman owned, you know, things like that where that's really big and focused on right now and, you know, low sugar nowadays, gluten free vegan, that's almost like the standard, all the natural products you need that. Otherwise it's like, what are you doing in this space, right? And I think communication, just conveying the right information across, and again, being passionate and to me, for me, I don't have to try to be passionate. I just genuinely love oatmeal. I eat it every day. And so, you know, I've been told even by customers, they're like, Grace, I can hear your passion behind your products. It makes me want to support you and see your brand succeed that much more.

Phil: 17:07

Two more questions. First one is, why is your product better?

Grace: 17:12

My favorite question, my second favorite question. So obviously, like I mentioned, there are a lot of similarities right off the bat when you're looking on the shelf, right? There's five different brands. You're like, Well, this one's cheaper, I'm just gonna go with it. And so with Mylk Labs, we really take pride in only using four to six ingredients for all of our products. Our entire product line. You'll never see more than six ingredients. And you know, we never use add flavors. Almost every single packaged foods brand nowadays has to add natural flavors and natural flavors and artificial flavors. Honestly, they're technically the same 80 to 90% chemical junk. There's no nutritional profile. I mean, there's no nutrition with it at all. And it's tricking the consumer's taste buds into believing they're getting the real thing and it still doesn't taste like the real thing. And so we choose to, you know, give an arm in a leg, like getting maple sugar over from Vermont all the way to California. You won't believe how expensive it is, but I refuse to use maple flavor. And so we go the extra mile to really just get the flavors from the real ingredients itself and the nutrition as well.

Phil: 18:28

So second question is, what's next for Mylk Labs? Is it, you know, obviously you want to have nationwide distribution with the current product. Do you envision having oatmeal cookies? You mentioned, you know, you started baking cookies and they were terrible. Is it oatmeal cookies, is it frozen dinners? What's next?

Grace: 18:50

It's funny that you say that. Our goal is actually not national distribution. We've actually cut, kind of put a stop on expanding in retail. You know, we just got Target on the West coast, Whole Foods in the Northeast and a bunch of other natural retail launches. But right now my main focus is really nurturing the customers that I have. I don't wanna spread ourselves too thin. I don't wanna over promise under deliver. I really wanna show the people I've already committed to that, you know, they have our business, they have our support, and we're all gonna win in this partnership. Coming up next, I would love to actually expand into a different category like you mentioned. I haven't decided exactly what, but I do know that it will probably be in the single serves category. Something where you can eat at any time of the day, whether that be a healthy snack or a healthy dessert that you know you can eat anytime. Exactly what I can't share with you just yet because I'm working on a couple of ideas. And, you know, it's, it's something where I'm really excited to finally do, because we've been in oatmeal for a really long time and I think a lot of people are ready to see more in different products from Mylk Labs.

Phil: 20:16

So Grace congratulations on your success. If people want to get in touch with you, give us your website.

Grace: 20:25

The website is mylklabs.com and that's spelled M Y L K L A B S dot com.

Phil: 20:33

Grace, congratulations. And we look forward to seeing more Mylk Labs products on our supermarket shelves.

Grace: 20:40

Thank you, Phil. I appreciate it.