BEYONDSKU Track 5 Announced

BeyondSKU Selects Five Brands for Track 5, Kicking off Fall ’24 in New York City

The Innovative Brands Range From Tasty Spreads and Canned Tequila Cocktails to Plant-Based Desserts, Gut-Healthy Energy Bars and Clean Label Personal Care Products

NEW YORK, NY – September 3, 2024 - BeyondSKU, an accelerator for “Better For You” consumer-packaged goods (CPGs) in the tri-state area, has selected five companies for the upcoming Fall ’24 track.

The five brands encompass a premium range of food, beverage and personal care brands. This is the fifth track for BeyondSKU that is in partnership between Austin-based SKU and BeyondBrands, New York's top natural products consulting agency. The cohort includes: Cleo+Coco, Culiraw, Tigo Tequila Cocktails, Growee Foods and Lola Snacks.

"Building on the continued success of the 20 plus tracks between our Austin and New York chapters, we are excited to kick off BeyondSKU Track 5 in September 2024," says Eric Schnell, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of BeyondBrands. "I am proud our New York-focused accelerator plays a key role in growing our local entrepreneurial community of small brands to become household names, while leveraging the collective wisdom of our diverse talented group of seasoned CPG veterans who lean in deep with mentorship and networking."

SKU, based in Austin, is the nation's first CPG accelerator. Since it was founded in 2011, more than 120 brands have gone through the program, including such success stories as WildWonder, Epic Provisions, Siete, and DUDE Wipes.

Classes kick off in Manhattan on September 25, 2024 and continue through January 7, 2025. BeyondSKU's curriculum covers topics important to CPG startups, including Mission and Vision, Branding, Investment, Legal, Channel Strategy, Supply Chain and InnovationI. On January 23, 2025 the founders will present their pitches to an audience of investors, CPG leaders and fellow successful founders.

One of the most valuable components of BeyondSKU is its elite community of mentors from some of the most successful consumer product companies as well as successful CPG founders, subject-matter experts and investors. Each BeyondSKU cohort is surrounded by a hand-picked team of mentors focused on helping them scale their businesses as they guide them through the program. In addition to the rewards of working with founders to help them achieve their potential, mentors benefit from the experience of working side by side with their peers.

“We can’t believe how accelerated our growth has been since participating in Cohort 4 of BeyondSKU,” said Danny Auld, Co-Founder of Kekoa Foods. “The mentors are seasoned CPG leaders who encouraged us to share our biggest pain points so they could offer their insight, expertise and connections to help us develop a solid growth plan over an 18-month period. Each week we delved into all aspects of running a CPG business with leaders in each of the areas of sales, marketing, branding, operations and fundraising, to name a few. We perfected our pitch by program completion, all while being supported by, and supporting, our fellow cohort founders, and established an amazing network in our industry.”

The innovative BeyondSKU Track 5 participants include:

• When Suzannah Raff, founder of Cleo+Coco, was first pregnant, she was extra careful with the ingredients that she was putting on her body. After a lot of research and partnering with the top chemists in the clean and natural world to make her own products — ones that are actually clean with no synthetic fragrances, and that actually work and thus Cleo+Coco was born. The personal care brand is now a woman-owned, award winning personal care brand that offers effective, clean, vegan, cruelty-free and sustainable personal care products like deodorants that not only smell incredible, they actually work incredibly well too.  

• Culiraw’s healthy, plant-based cheesecakes, cookies, and snacks are a testament to a passion-filled journey. Silvia Vidova, the founder, embarked on a quest for healthier dessert and snack options. What began as a personal endeavor blossomed into a wide range of vegan cheesecakes, cookies and snacks that invite you to indulge without hesitation. Each decadent treat is handcrafted using the best available, all-natural, organic ingredients free from artificial flavorings, preservatives and chemicals.

• Tigo Tequila Cocktails is the first premium canned Reposado tequila cocktail made for true connoisseurs. Founded by Geoff Harris and Anita Parikh, Tigo is made with 100% Tequila and natural, locally sourced ingredients that aims to elevate the ready-to-drink space. With its enhanced design, flavor profiles inspired by true cocktails and experiential elements, they are made for premier hospitality venues and experiences. Tigo is more than something to sip - it’s something to savor.

• When Growee Founder Aman Blana began a transition towards more animal-free foods, he realized that oftentimes, he was turning to more complicated, highly processed ingredients. In order to make plant based-diets more approachable they should be mouthwatering and not have ingredient lists long enough to get lost in.  Instead of using manipulated-in-a-lab “natural flavor,” he experimented in his kitchen, harnessing flavor from real, natural ingredients. In fact, each of Growee’s tasty spreads are simple enough that you could make them in your kitchen.

• Lola Snacks offers life-changing energy bars designed to unlock good gut health with clean ingredients, adaptogens and delivers exceptional performance nutrition. Founded by Mary Molina, a mother of five, Lola Snacks was born out of her kitchen during a challenging time when she relied on food assistance to support her family. Faced with her husband's gut health struggles and her children's food allergies, Mary created a gut-friendly energy bar that outperforms kombucha, yogurt, and prebiotic sodas, providing the fuel you need to power through to the finish line.

BeyondSKU is backed by industry-leading companies in the CPG space, all of which are dedicated to supporting emerging and small brands. These partners include ePAC, ForceBrands, Konnect Agency, Little Big Brands, Manitoba Harvest, NIQ, Polsinelli, Propeller Industries, and Wayflyer. The BeyondSKU team appreciates their sponsors' continued support for these Founders and their emerging brands.

If you are a CPG leader who is interested in mentoring for BeyondSKU, please email info@beyondsku.org. For more information please visit https://www.beyondsku.org/ 

# # #

About BeyondBrands

Co-Founded by husband and wife serialprenuers Eric Schnell and Marci Zaroff, BeyondBrands’ dynamic cast of partners have decades of experience in creating, launching, accelerating, and exiting some of the most reputable organic food, beverage, and nutraceutical brands on the shelves today. Their passion is helping entrepreneurs through their collective experience, expertise, and industry relationships to best position brands for success. Learn more at www.beyondbrands.org.

Media Contact:

Alissa Bremner/Konnect Agency, abremner@konnectagency.com

###