Sol Solis and Anna Hagopian, founders of Mera Bites share their story of creating delicious cookies that are paleo and gluten-free.
Let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there. How did your company get started and why?
Our personal dietary restrictions led us to fill a void in the “healthy” CPG space. We learned quickly the limited gluten free, or sugar free or vegan cookie options we found were loaded with a bunch of other icky stuff we didn’t want to consume. In the rare occasion we found an authentically clean product, the flavor, unfortunately, would be too compromised to enjoy. Hence, we created our Delicious & Good-For-You Mera Bites.
Has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Most great things aren’t easy. Our biggest challenge has been our short shelf life due to our ingredient integrity. In the world of grocery stores, (and distribution schedules), this gift becomes our achilles heel. We’ve been working with ingredient experts to develop natural preservation efforts. The trick has been to do so without compromising our signature taste, but we’re working on it.
What is your next challenge to overcome? What’s your next milestone?
Rebranding and repackaging ourselves, which we expect to launch this spring. The nutshell for this change, aside from bringing our packaging COGS down, is to transition from our current product-focused brand, to a message-focused brand. In the past few years we’ve seen a growing trend with healthy snack/sweet options, (which we’re happy about). This makes it more important than ever to figure out the best strategy to stand out on the shelves. With so much saturation, we’ve learned shoppers are drawn to products that offer connection and emotion. As such, Anna and I want to tap into this, and it starts with us being more transparent about our story.
