Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar.
Leah and Yasaman, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Yasaman and I are the co-founders of good girl snacks, a NewGen f&b company aimed at awakening sleepy aisles with GenZ forward branding, marketing and flavor innovation. We launched our first product, Hot Girl Pickles, in February 2024 and have taken the internet by storm with our two flavors: Honey Harissa and Original Dill with Turmeric. We’ve been posting daily since October 1st and have amassed 67k+ followers on Instagram and 13k+ followers on TikTok, allowing us to (1) get proof of concept and (2) build a cult following. We are now moving toward a new phase of our business and transitioning from DTC to retail in the coming months, starting with some of LA’s most popular grocery stores. This year, we’ll also be coming out with new flavors and a new product, which we hope will continue our growth and virality.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely has not been a smooth road! Starting a company in an industry you have no experience in, is never easy. Along with learning every detail of how things work, we also decided to tackle one of the hardest food & beverage products you can manufacture: one that involves fresh AND organic produce. We laugh about ‘cucumber gate’ often, which is our biggest struggle to this day. Cucumbergate can be described as a continued issue with organic cucumbers where we have to wait for the right season to produce pickles, or where a storm takes our thousands of pounds of crops, or where truck drivers have ruined our crops by putting the cucumbers in the wrong type of truck.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Leah Marcus: I tackle and handle all the marketing for good girl snacks. Maintaining a $0CAC whilst focusing on organic social media strategies and influencer marketing has been our biggest win thus far. With the amount of growth and attention we’ve gotten for the product online, it’s been so rewarding to see how a cult following for both the product and the brand have developed. It’s been a treat meeting our followers and knowing that we’re creating a product that people love and are excited to try. I think a large part of the reason for our success is that no other food brand has built in public like we have. We’ve been posting our journey and vlogging about it since day 0 (literally pre-launch), so our community feels as though they’ve been building the company with us, in a way. We also approach food marketing in a way that’s not necessarily ‘appetizing’ and more so, ‘provocative’ and ‘nostalgic’ which has also allowed us to make a dent in the industry.
Yasaman Bakhtiar:
My education in art history & marketing, along with my passion for design, has made me obsessed with branding and packaging. Simultaneously, I have always been a massive foodie, obsessed with trying new foods & snacks any chance I got. Although I never envisioned myself being a founder, let alone in the F&B space, starting this business has made me feel like the puzzle pieces were finally coming together, with me being able to combine my love for food and my keen eye for all things branding. My proudest achievement has been creating a brand which not only resonates with countless people, but also feels so deeply authentic to us. I love being able to surprise our followers and customers with each photoshoot we do, producing imagery that lives somewhere between being delicious, daring, off-putting, intriguing and unconventional.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We work with any brand we feel we align with whether that’s on an Instagram collab post, through events etc. You can find us @goodgirlsnacks on all socials to follow us on this journey, and find our products in store or on goodgirlsnacks.com
Contact Info:
- Website: goodgirlsnacks.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/goodgirlsnacks
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/good-girl-snacks/
- Other: Tiktok.com/@goodgirlsnacks
Screenshot
Image Credits
Dakota Matthews, Dan Siman-tov, Wonderkind
