Faith, Family and Potato Chips | Teton Valley Brands

Transcript note: This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly formatted for readability. Speakers are Jet Bunditwong, Kyle Nehring, and Amy Nehring.

[00:10] Jet Bunditwong: Hi welcome to The Personal Side of Business, where every business has a story. I'm Jet Bunditwong. Today I'm here with Kyle and Amy Nehring. We are at the Teton Valley Brands Potato Chips here in Boise, Idaho. Welcome to the podcast, guys. Thanks. So tell us how did we get here?

[00:24] Amy Nehring: Thank you.

[00:29] Kyle Nehring: How did we get here? my goodness. That is how much time do you have? Whatever time. so the the quick story. yeah, so back in 2010, I was attending college and I had this random idea. I was here in Idaho and I had an idea for a brand. Why does no one use the Idaho logo on the potato chip aisle? Why are there no Idaho potato chips out there? at the time I was a broke college student, had no idea what I was studying business, I was studying entrepreneurship, I didn't know how to run a business, I didn't know anything about food manufacturing. and so that's the genesis of the idea. Fast forward five years, I find myself working for a a a plant-based protein supplement company. It's actually called Sun Warrior. Shout out to Sun Warrior, they're a fantastic company. But I started to learn all of the ins and outs of how a food product, a CPG product, comes to market. So I learned about the manufacturing and the operations, sales and marketing and distribution and margin and you know what's acceptable for for retailers. And you know, I I I just started getting into it. And so in 2017, I decided I do enough to to launch my own thing. I I was wrong, by the way. I didn't know enough. but that's how that's how we got started. And yeah, I was it was my brother and I, and and our wives were involved too, but it was mostly my brother and I. And we had heard about an a snack bar company that started for started with eleven thousand dollars and so we wanted to beat them, so we each put in five grand a piece and said, Let's go for it. So yeah, that was two thousand seventeen and it's been a wild ride since then. But that's how we got started. fast forward today we have you know, a pretty decent operation going.

[02:33] Jet Bunditwong: Yeah. Absolutely. Now were you guys already together when two thousand seventeen when you guys hit started bus or

[02:39] Amy Nehring: Yeah, so two thousand and ten is when we met. And so about the same year that he had the idea is when we started our relationship. And to be fair, he did warn me that he wanted to be an entrepreneur, which I had always heard the joke that entrepreneur is French for unemployed. And so, it w our very first conversation as we were getting to know each other, the what's your major conversations and what do you want to do with that? he told me he wanted to be an entrepreneur and I've I've heard a lot of people who have big dreams like that, but then, you know, they they have the family, they get the nine to five and it's it's too comfortable to chase those dreams. But Kyle is not a normal person and he yeah, he's very adventurous, very creative. And so a lot of this is just going on faith and going at it together and

[03:35] Jet Bunditwong: Yeah. When did you when did you feel like you were confident in what Kyle was doing? Like there was a there's probably a point where you were like, this is kind of a a little bit of a joke until it becomes real.

[03:48] Amy Nehring: No, that's a good question. He he's had ideas for businesses our whole marriage. And so it's kind of just a joke of, hey, you know what would be a good idea? And then he just pitches me something. And so we talk business all the time. And so but this was an idea that I guess out of all his ideas, he he just couldn't let go of. And so as we're at Sunwarrior, remember he came to me and he was like, I just can't. stop thinking about this and I think I really want to try it. And so we started it out of our basement. We had somebody making the chips for us. So we would ship, you know, potatoes to Missouri and a chef would cook them up for us, send them in bulk to our home where Kyle built this contraption out of a garage door motor and but it would package twelve bags at a time. And so we would work through the night and package cases of chips out of our home and just to prove concept and see, you know, does this sell, does this brand work? So we came up with the packaging design and we just slowly just started proving the concept and then it started

[05:03] Jet Bunditwong: what what were sales like that first year?

[05:08] Kyle Nehring: yeah, so our first consecutive year, I think we did I wanna say about thirty thousand dollars in sales. And so it at this point in time is very much a side hustle. yeah, just something we were doing in the evenings and we took it really slow. And my my brother, my business partner at the time, he was very cautious. I I'm not that way, which I don't know if that's good or bad. I think you kind of have to be not that way if you're an entrepreneur. and and that's part of the reason why we're we're not doing it together anymore, is because we we did have very different mindsets. but yeah, so no, about about thirty thousand dollars, I think. was our first year.

[05:51] Jet Bunditwong: And then what were sales like over from the end of first year to second year? How how much of a growth did you guys have?

[05:57] Kyle Nehring: Yeah. we pretty much doubled for the first several years. and so, yeah, thirty to sixty, sixty, and then we we launched our new facility. That was actually a huge step for us was manufacturing the chips ourselves one hundred percent from raw potato all the way to, you know, complete bag of chips. And and so that was That was when I went on full time and that's when things got really intense. You know, it it turned from a fun hobby, you know, playing around with it, to we're going for this. Yeah, we and we did. We went all in.

[06:41] Jet Bunditwong: No, what what were some of your sourcing for the potatoes? Did you did you was that easy to find sourcing for it and then work with you or did you have to figure out a whole strategy in order to get that?

[06:54] Kyle Nehring: Yeah, absolutely. sourcing potatoes just in general is a pretty tricky thing. it sounds simple, and Idaho is known for potatoes. they do grow the most potatoes in the United States by far. Some people say it's Washington. I don't know why they say that. It's not true at all. but either way, you know, you you would think that wouldn't be too challenging. but these are all lessons that we had to learn along the way. So for example, We thought we wanted to do a russet potato chip. That's kind of your classic Idaho potato. it doesn't turn into a chip very well. It it does turn into a great chip about 10% of the time. The rest of the time, it's just a pain to deal with. And so that's why almost none of the the major players use them. And eventually we realized this wasn't working. We couldn't we couldn't deliver the quality of product that we wanted to for our customers. and so we had like these really difficult lessons along the way that we had to learn. and that was one of And yeah, potato sourcing. I I I can talk a long time on nerdy potato topics. I I don't know we should go there. but it has to do with the starches and the way they're stored and the type of potato variety, all kinds of stuff.

[08:11] Jet Bunditwong: So yeah, nice. And so Amy, during this time where the business is starting to take off, what is what was your role in the support and involvement in the business?

[08:23] Amy Nehring: Yeah, so brainstorming a lot when we came up with the design for the packaging, I have crystal clear memories of us sitting in our bed at night, just brainstorming and coming up with, you know, well, what do we want it to look like? Wouldn't it be interesting if we just put a giant potato on the front? Like that would stand out on the shelf. And so we just start playing around with that idea. And what if every flavor on the back highlighted a different scenic place in Idaho? And so we started looking at artwork and the barcode on the back is actually the shape of Idaho and that was one of our ideas. And how about we print on the back where the potatoes are coming from and which part of Idaho so they know. And so a lot of that was just, yeah, just brainstorming and helping with design. And then I would also help package the potatoes, potato chips, in our basement during that time. But we had three young children. And I was pregnant with our fourth when all of this was going down and we were getting ready to start manufacturing ourselves. And so yep, that was that is a whole story there too. But when we were in our very first facility, when I had help with the kids, I would come out and help clean or help season, help inspect, help bag. you know. Getting potatoes washed and ready to be fried and cut and feeding potatoes into the slicer, just yeah, every aspect of it. Hairnet, all the things we wherever I kind of was needed, I would be there to

[10:06] Jet Bunditwong: I'm always I'm always curious about that aspect with mothers and businesses because I think that's part of the unseen heroes in in the business because you you know, and I I'm not taking anything away from you as as a father, right? But I think there's this crucial time when mothers have to be really involved with the children in order to to raise them. And I think to jump into business mode, it's probably a long day stressful and you're You're just trying to concentrate on I would guess moments at a time instead of thinking the long picture 'cause it could drive you crazy. What were some of the things that got you by going from mother mode into business mode? Like what what was your mindset like?

[10:49] Amy Nehring: I think for me it was not so much that I'm the professional here, but I am his support. And this is his dream, this is his livelihood, this is how he's providing t for our family or and or hoping to. We did go once we took on our own manufacturing, we went about two years without a paycheck. and that was hard. It's hard with a young family and to sell your home and use that equity to live on and watching that slowly dwindle down and the company's out of money. So you put your last little bit of savings in there and you don't really know. There's a lot of uncertainty and there's I think as a mother there's a lot of ideals that we have of what we want our ch children's childhoods to look like and it was very different. And so,

[11:41] Jet Bunditwong: Having a fourth kid was I mean, that's that's financially that's a scary place for you guys to be in.

[11:47] Amy Nehring: Yeah, there is a lot of uncertainty.

[11:49] Kyle Nehring: But I mean we're we're talking we know we want we need to go full time. We knew we need to bring in our manufacturing. We know it's very expensive to buy industrial equipment. So we're starting to scrap together equipment across the country. we bring in a pretty good paycheck from My parents, not a paycheck, investment. and we are I mean, she's literally eight months, eight and a half months pregnant when we list our house. You know, we sell the house and and we we move to we move to a rental and we are no longer receiving income. I mean, it is the most stressful environment y you could possibly imagine. And of course, as we get the facility built, it's way more expensive than what we realized. our savings, you know, I mean we were we were pretty poor even back then and we were living off of the income of our house and that was just dwindling and dwindling and dwindling and dwindling. And yeah, I mean, for Amy to be so stoic through all that, you know, raising children and not say that it was you know, anyone is perfect. We all stumbled at that time. We're all wondering, what in the heck are we doing? Like why are we or it's a potato chip company, come on, like why are we doing this? And anyway, a lot of hard years. I always said if I was gonna write a book I would call it Blood, Sweat and Years because it just takes a long, hard time. What was

[13:28] Jet Bunditwong: What was it about this business that made you both see through the grind? Like there there had to be a moment that you were like, what what are we doing this for? Like you said, but then you're like, This is worth it.

[13:42] Amy Nehring: We had a lot of moments where we questioned whether we should continue or not. We've we've faced bankruptcy more times than I can count. and it's it's hard when it's a potato chip company to say, like, yeah, this is this is gonna be worth it when you're just obstacle after obstacle, especially during COVID. It was just it was a really hard time when businesses were going out of business all the time, to see that light at the end of the tunnel. but to be frank, we we came to a point where we did not know, if emotionally, financially, if this made any sense to keep going. And I hope this is okay to say here, but we had to pray about it. And if it was up to us, I think we would have been done at that point, but we both felt very strongly that there was a higher purpose to this and we needed to keep going. And it was going to be hard.

[14:43] Jet Bunditwong: Was there a sign that you felt from your praying that that was the push to keep going?

[14:51] Kyle Nehring: Yeah, what I would say is, you know the the f the feeling that we had was God doesn't care warn iota about a potato chip company at all. He doesn't care about that. But the individuals in it he really, really cares about. And and he can see the end from the beginning. And and not, you know, we're not trying to turn this into a religious podcast or anything like that. But it was it was such an integral part of what we were doing and and we knew that he knew what we needed and what our employees needed and the potential and the potential good that can come from from something like this. And so that was really it. What it was just this distinct feeling that he can do a lot of good with us and with the company. And we just gotta get through these hard years. I actually had a a very distinct feeling if you're recalling the bible the story of joseph in egypt where she had seven years of famine followed by seven years of plenty actually it was reverse but seven years of of plenty and seven years of famine and and in the middle of this we'd I just felt like we've got seven hard years and if we can if we can get through that we'll be okay and I mean almost to a T That's that's how it worked out. And so yeah, we're now in year eight. So

[16:23] Jet Bunditwong: Well, that's amazing. And I I think, you know, in business, one of the things that is is really tough that I've noticed in different businesses is getting through there's always an this mountain of a hurdle. And I think that's when a lot of people decide to give up, right? It it happens to every it could be you could be a bubble notary, you can be a a potato chip factory. It doesn't it doesn't matter because it's it's it's sort of perception of that moment. Did you when you guys were going through this, did you were you always on the same page in terms of we're gonna see this or did one of you have to sort of pull the other one along just a little bit?

[17:07] Amy Nehring: One really cool thing about our experience with this company is the one thing that felt stable and solid the entire time was our relationship. The company never created any kind of wedge or tension between us. And I think we really have been on the same page. We've had the same goals. It has been incredibly difficult, but at the end of every day that we've survived this, we just kind of look at each other and it's like Maybe everything else is falling apart, but at least I've got you. And we kind of have this this joke that's been running in our family is, you know, within the four walls of whatever rental home we're living in, we say to each other, Is my life perfect right now? Because we have these healthy, happy children and our marriage is strong. And Kyle always says, you know, we live in America. If all of this falls apart, like we are going to be okay. But we're gonna fight another day.

[18:10] Jet Bunditwong: And I I think you have to be that have that mentality in a business, especially a business that's gotten as large as yours, you know. I I think if you were a pop-up stand selling potato chips, it's easier to fold and figure it out. But you've I feel like you've gone too far at that point, right? Like you were just like, I what what is this all for if we did all this and we give up now? I I was curious just to get back a little bit to your point from business school. What were some of the things you applied You think that help you get through those moments?

[18:43] Kyle Nehring: Yeah, no, absolutely. I actually had a had a great professor, and he's been a mentor since he he ran a couple of companies and had some massive exits and decided to go into teaching afterwards to kind of give back to a degree. And anyways, he he there's one line in particular that stuck out and he said, All entrepreneurs are intelligent enough They're capable enough. They work hard enough. there's there's a couple of things you have to get right. One, cash is king, you cannot run out of cash. And then number two, you cannot die. And it sounds so simple, but but that one, don't let the company die. that can pull you really far because you're smart enough. You might need to pivot, you n might need to change some things. maybe you do need to throw away the idea and you're smart enough to realize that. But if the company has good bones, just make sure you don't die, keep it funded and you'll get through it. And and we and we did. We we had months and years where I was like, We just can't die, we just gotta keep going, we gotta keep going. And and that helped a ton.

[19:59] Jet Bunditwong: Were you both well versed at any point with funding? Like did you guys start to get savvier and smarter at one point you're like, okay, w every time we're battuta, we figure out how to bring more money into the company to keep it alive?

[20:16] Kyle Nehring: Yeah, I I would say I would say no. but we learned along the way. and that actually is a is a great question and a and a critical pivotable pivotal points in in the growth of this company are because of funding. so I mentioned that initial investment for my parents, I was $100,000, felt like an insane amount of money. Today we we laugh at how little that got us. that was followed up very quickly with credit cards. And I mean, literally, at the time you could get a lot of zero percent credit cards and we got them all. Like in fact, I've got we're gonna we're gonna put a we're gonna put a plaque up at some point. I've got about five credit cards that are unswiped. They've never been swiped. Why? Because I got them in the mail and I maxed them out day one and they just went on the shelf. So but needless to say, so so that's how we started. Not exactly the best way to do it. And I know for Money from family is very risky and that they can cause problems. but about two years ago, twenty twenty three, that's when we started doing some real real capital raising and we brought on a a gentleman to help us with that and and that really completely changed the direction of the company. You know, we were able to get enough enough funding to to help with this facility and I think you'll have some B roll that you can you can see what this looks like. But needlessly, that that was a huge turning point was being able to raise the money that it took, being able to attract the right investors, and we're really proud of our investors, by the way. it's all locals here from Idaho and ninety percent of it is from farmers, which is really cool. Cranny Farms being the main farmer, a lot of faith in us and and it's worked out it's worked out really well. So

[22:09] Jet Bunditwong: Great. Yeah, thanks for sharing that. And Amy had a question for you. You had talked about the branding of it. W what was your target audience when you were branding this all together?

[22:22] Amy Nehring: So originally we wanted to market it more toward like a cleaner potato chip. and so we were thinking maybe more whole foods, maybe more the natural aisle, and maybe we would try to make it and go that direction. And so we we thought the nice crisp, you know, color blocking with the white bag and the potato, using really clean ingredients and keeping everything really simple.

[22:49] Jet Bunditwong: Yeah. And has that changed at all during the the last few years?

[22:55] Kyle Nehring: Yeah, yeah, it has changed a little bit. honestly the the product quality is identical. It's still top quality product. but we've just realized that segment isn't where we naturally fit. the Idaho brand, you know, it's got it's got some natural potential, but really it's just kind of an old school brand. So it's more conventional classic instead of, you know, high end. And so yeah. Same same product quality, but a little bit different price point, a little bit different market. You know, we do fantastic in Winco or in Albertsons and we didn't do so well in Sprouts and some of those others.

[23:40] Jet Bunditwong: What is the the future in terms of expanding right now into different markets?

[23:46] Kyle Nehring: Yeah, absolutely. That one's actually a really exciting one for us. So there there's a lot of there's a lot of opportunities, especially now that we've built this this facility that we're in today. our our capacity is four X from the original one that we we scrapped together. and we're we're finally doing a really proper facility with all of the all the additional third party certifications and and all kinds of stuff. not that we were doing anything wrong. It's just, you know, to take it to the next level and to go get larger clients and customers, there's just a a different level of expectation. but we've launched recently a partner snak a partnership with Snake River Farms, and we are now doing a Wagyu beef tallow chip, which we are really proud of. It's an absolutely delicious product. And yeah, that that is that is a huge change. Tal has been very popular recently and there's a number of companies doing it. So it's not it's not like a space that's untouched. but there's very few people that are chasing that properly and at scale. And we're we're early in that game and we're really excited. And specifically to have such a phenomenal brand to to work with like Snake River Farms, who's also local to the Boise area. yeah, that product is exciting. It's only a couple of weeks, I don't know, maybe maybe a month and a half now, but it's it's taking off.

[25:13] Jet Bunditwong: How do you guys decide on what flavors you guys are bringing to the market?

[25:21] Kyle Nehring: Yeah. so Amy mentioned, you know, we like to we like to match a flavor with a location. And really the entire brand, starting out, we wanted it to be kind of a billboard for Idaho. You know, when somebody comes to Idaho, you want to send them off with a bag of chips. You're not gonna give them a a sack of potatoes, right? And so why not a bag of chips? And so the flavors were meant to represent different things. And so, for example, our jalapeno is Hells Canyon Jalapeno. not a lot of people know that Hells Canyon, but it's an incredible canyon. It's deeper than the Grand Canyon. there's incredible fishing there. I Idaho has some of the most remarkable spaces. And sometimes we don't like to tell everyone about it because we're not trying to draw too many people. but it but it's absolutely beautiful. And so the idea was trying to experience Idaho through a bag of potato chips. Of course we're doing your classic flavors, you know, salt and vinegar, jalapeno, barbecue. but a little bit of a twist and where they represent something more than than just this is a barbecue chip. So

[26:31] Jet Bunditwong: Nice. And and I think you had brought up the the branding and and the design, right? How how has that changed from when you first started until now?

[26:41] Amy Nehring: When we first started we had a stand-up pouch because that's what we could do out of our home. so it looks quite a bit different now. we had an original flavor. So it just said original on it and it was not not a typical salted chip. It was just a seasoned chip and that one was brown and you know, the color blocking on there was brown, and then we had a a spicy one. and that was kind of a reddish color. And so when we stepped away from those ingredients and went with more data driven, what is the highest selling flavors? And we developed these packages and moved to this this kind of packaging here that we do on our machines. yeah, we've just kind of changed colors, changed fonts a little bit. But overall, the look of it is still very true to our original design when we very first started.

[27:39] Jet Bunditwong: And you talked about partnerships. How do you guys decide on who you want to work with?

[27:46] Kyle Nehring: yeah, that that's a good question. Well, so as far as retailers, we're we're we're pretty selective on retailers. One of the hardest things about CPG companies is distribution. And anyone who's watching or who's running their own company, they know that. It's probably even more difficult with potato chips because you have a short shelf life. freight is really expensive because it you're kind of shipping air to a degree. and so Distribution is a huge part of what retailers we choose to to work with. but then as far as like suppliers and investors, those are very different relationships. suppliers, obviously high quality ingredients, and we really haven't had to change a lot. In in a lot of ways, we're very similar to when we started. You know, all of our oil comes from one supplier. all of our sunflower oil, I should say, and we use top quality local, you know, it's a it's a Colorado company. expeller pressed, very, very high quality ingredients. and really develop those relationships and we we don't feel a lot of need to change. despite having to to go through some some pretty tough times. Maybe one quick thing. eighty percent of the world's sunflower oil comes out of two countries. You could guess what two countries it would be. It's Ukraine and Russia.

[29:13] Jet Bunditwong: wow.

[29:13] Kyle Nehring: 80% needless to say, when when the war started, oil prices went through the roof and it felt I mean this was this was a hard time for us and with the company, right? And I know that that's still happening, although you're able to get sunflower oil and and people have made up for that. But needless to say, I mean, it felt like everything was trying to kill us for a couple of years. And oil prices was one of those things, all of a sudden your your oil price doubles. And it's already a a you know, a high quality ingredient and you know, you don't wanna cheapen your product, you wanna be true to your brand. How do we survive? And anyway, we mean

[29:52] Jet Bunditwong: is what is the move through that? Do you was there a look at the profits and you're like we can increase it by our you know purchase price by this much and we can still survive that type of thing?

[30:08] Kyle Nehring: Yeah, absolutely. You're you're constantly running your cost of goods. and yeah. and and and we're still learning that I'll I'll say. it's really hard to go to your suppliers and or to your retailers and just increase the costs. nobody wants to hear that. It it is common and and it does happen. but it's not even something that we do every year, even annually. and so usually for a little while you bite the bullet and you just take a lesser margin or almost no margin and you survive and then at some point either either it'll stabilize and and some plural that was the case that did come down, or you do take a little bit of a price hike and it stabilizes. we did a little bit of both and fortunately that's that's worked out okay for us.

[31:02] Jet Bunditwong: Yeah. And if you guys were to go back in time to two thousand fifteen, what would you have done differently? Would you have s stayed in this and maybe go into a different direction with another business? Or you you you're you're proud of everything you've done up to this point, this moment, and stayed in this business?

[31:24] Amy Nehring: We have been asked that before, kind of, you know, do you regret this? Would you have done anything different? And Kyle always would jokingly say, ask me in five years. Because it all kind of depends on the end of the story and we're still very much in it and figuring it out. but something I will say is what we've learned through this and the people that we've become through this is absolutely worth the journey and how hard it was. And so it's hard to look at the mistakes and look back and say, I would do it so different because it's kind of you need you need those hard things to become who you are and learn what you have learned. I think there's no perfect way to when you don't know anything, to just accept or or think that you will be able to do it perfectly the first time. And so I think that radical ac acceptance of I am going to make mistakes. No matter what product I choose to make or what service I provide, being an entrepreneur is just constant obstacles and fixing the problems that come up and being creative and how do we solve this?

[32:39] Jet Bunditwong: Yeah. Do you have an answer to that too?

[32:41] Kyle Nehring: Yeah, no, I I would say the same thing. One one of the ironic things that's really good about a young entrepreneur is they don't know what they're getting into. Right. I I I mean, if you knew how hard it was gonna be, you wouldn't do it. And and I shouldn't say that's the case with everybody. it's certainly the case. Maybe we're more stubborn and it takes longer to learn the lessons, but but either way, I I think it's good to to stretch yourself and you know, to find your place in this world and Yeah, for us it was through potato chips and no, I I don't think at the end of the day, I don't think we regret anything drastically. Day to day, of course, you you make mistakes every day, but on the whole, yeah. And and we don't know the end of our story. right now it looks really good and and we're we're really hopeful for the next several years. but once again ask me in five years soon, we'll figure it out.

[33:36] Jet Bunditwong: Yeah, I think one of the hardest things to get into is a CPG world, Fred, because you're dealing with so many regulations, rules, distributions, and then also r now you're ha having to run your business. with in this industry, do you if you were to give advice to someone, one one key rule that they should have stuck with or start with, what would that be?

[34:03] Kyle Nehring: Yeah. so here's something that's really surprised surprising to many, and it was to me at the time. it is not nearly as difficult to get a product into a store as you would imagine. There are rules and regulations, the FDA monitors things. but here in the United States, just to get a product onto the shelf. It's not as challenging as you would think. You don't have to have any kind of at le at least, you know, it it depends on what you're launching. If you're doing a meat based product or something, all kinds of regulations, you can really hurt somebody that way. But the potato chip, the FDA knows that you're not going to typically cause major problems. You know, it's it's a it's a product that's got a a really strong step that takes out all the bacteria through its cooking process and you know it So at the end of the day, you can bring a product to shelf if you have a barcode and you have an idea and you can put it in packaging and you know it's safe. I mean, you can take that to a store and they will sell it for you. And so I I'm not saying that's that's where you have to stay, you have to graduate from there. but that's a surprising one when it comes to CBG. Now, what kills you is on the other side, yes, you can bring a product to a store, but until you're at scale and at volume. It's really expensive to make products. And so you know, it's it's a catch 22. You know, you you need the volume in order to get your cost down, but you need your cost down in order to get the volume. And you you you're constantly finding some of that. And we're on the tail end of that. It was really hard this first several years. but at the same time, you know, sweat equity, I can work for free for a little while. And you know, you just get it done. But yeah, that that's my one piece of advice. If somebody's considering launching a food product. You'd be surprised what you can put on the shelf. Make sure it's clean, make sure it's safe, take care of your customers, take care of your retailers. but you can usually get something on the shelves, especially in the natural and whole food kind of category.

[36:09] Jet Bunditwong: Thank you. And Amy, if you were to give advice or a a female entrepreneur with kids helping to raise a family and you have to also get down and dirty into this world, what would advice would you give to them?

[36:26] Amy Nehring: I would just say don't get attached to ideals. I think life is just messy and hard and there's it it can be equally beautiful as it is hard. And I think that is something that I've taken away is you know, this is not the motherhood that I thought I would have, but it's so good too. You know, I I grew up in a military family and so we weren't wealthy by any means, but we always had what we needed. And so it was very humbling to not know how I was gonna pay for school supplies. It was very humbling to be on the receiving end of hand-me-downs and, you know, have somebody stop by with toys that their kids had outgrown, not knowing that it was a week before one of our kids' birthdays. And so just so many tender mercies through these years that have been so absolutely humbling. And so I think my advice would be it's okay to be a little broken. It's okay to be struggling. It's okay to ask for help and receive help and then turn around and also be able to pay it forward in any small way that you can. and that is one of our biggest goals with this is that someday we will be able to help people the way that we've been helped. There's been so many good, good people in our community who have sustained us and carried us when we did not know how we were gonna get by.

[37:51] Jet Bunditwong: Yeah, I I appreciate your story so much. Now I understand when just to give insight, you know, when I first got in contact with Kyle, he told me they had a really incredible story and I didn't want to hear it because I wanted to hear it for the first time in person. So this is the first time I I normally do a little bit of just background work, but I think this was really important just because I I knew there was to get to this level, you have to go through a lot of hurt and triumphs at the same time to do it. So I appreciate this so much between both of you and and to get I think you guys fall in such a small category in the the history of businesses in such a way, just because I think it's one thing to be a couple to do it, to have kids, to also go through these moments where you're about to fold the company and get through and then go into CPG and then r go from a small factory you said into this. I I think it's amazing. So thank you for your sort of sharing that. and to wrap up here. If you could tell the audience what makes your brand s that much more special and different from the other potato chips, what would it be?

[39:03] Kyle Nehring: Yeah, absolutely. so we are so proud of our product. So first off, like we mentioned it's the Idaho brand. We thought that would carry, but at the end of the day, we we just got really excited about producing a quality product that people loved. I mean, it's still a potato chip. I wouldn't recommend eating them all the time. I wouldn't say they're healthy. but but it's it's it's small, it's local. I mean there is a heart behind every bag of chips and and yeah, it it really is a fantastic product that we're we're proud to put on the market. What are you

[39:42] Amy Nehring: Yeah, I just I'm for me, I I look at our brand and I just I see our life and our story and I'm proud of it. Proud of what we've created. and I think we this product does a good job of representing Idaho. We love it here. We love that this is where we're raising our family and the good people who are here in the state.

[40:06] Jet Bunditwong: Well thank you so much, Kyle, Amy, for being on the podcast. This is The Personal Side of Business.

[40:13] Kyle Nehring: Thanks. Yeah.