Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristin Charbo.
Hi Kristin, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Glonuts started by accident! a couple of years ago, my boyfriend, grover and I were burnt out of our jobs and decided to work on a *simple* side hustle: a wellness-focused coffee cart: imagine organic cold brew, plant-based creamers, sugar-free syrups, etc. the goal was to pop-up at events and serve ppl healthy snacks and drinks. The cart needed a snack on the menu. Donuts were an obvious choice –– our childhood obsession and the perfect pair with coffee. So we pulled out the cuisinart and (somehow) whipped up a sugar-free, gluten-free, and raw vegan batch that tasted sooooooooooooooo good! We called them glonuts because the super clean ingredients would help you glow from within.
One day we gave some glonuts to our favorite Instagram wellness influencer who shared a *glowing* review and the next day, we woke up to hundreds of people asking for glonuts. At that moment, we decided to drop everything (including the cart) and drive around LA delivering glonuts to anyone who would venmo us. At the time, we didn’t know how to ship a raw, vegan, keto donut so instead of going direct to consumer we reached out to local stores and coffee shops and eventually landed some amazing wholesale accounts like erewhon, alfred, and pink dot. The order volume quickly became too high for us to just do this on the side. So we quit our jobs, leveraged our personal savings, *and just like that* became founders of a food & beverage cpg company with literally no idea what we were doing, lol.
Our first year (2020), we worked out of our (permitted) home kitchen in a one bedroom apartment and made, packed and personally delivered ~100,000 donuts just the two of us!
Since then, we moved into a commercial kitchen, secured regional distribution, and just finished a brand refresh complete with new packaging and a website so we can (finally) ship nationwide!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We’ve worked harder and longer than we’ve ever worked before and we’re constantly presented with new challenges every single day. Grover and I never operated a kitchen before this never worked with supply chain or distribution. We’ve made tons of mistakes! Our first package was a plastic deli case with a paper label that would literally disintegrate in the fridge! We tested so many machines hoping they’d help us scale parts of the production process and been disappointed when they don’t. But we’ve persisted. We never give up because our customers have supported us the whole way. They just kept buying glonuts, and ultimately that’s what’s kept us going.
As you know, we’re big fans of Glonuts. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Imagine eating a donut without regretting it. Glonuts are cute, mini, vegan, 1 net carbs and sooooooooooooooooo good. And we’re finally available nationwide on eatglonuts.com!
Contact Info:
- Website: eatglonuts.com
- Instagram: @eatglonuts
Image Credits
Real life donut pics: maria be packaging design: day job
