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Keith Belling is the Founder and CEO of RightRice, the breakthrough vegetable rice grain that launched nationally one year ago with Whole Foods and on Amazon, and is now available in major retailers nationwide. Keith is also the Founder and former CEO of PopChips, the innovative pop snack company that launched in 2007, and was named one of America's hottest brands.
Keith is on the board of directors of Restoration Hardware and he has launched and led a variety of businesses as well as served as an advisor or an investor in many innovative consumer and technology companies.
-How Keith transitioned from being a real estate attorney into the food industry
-How Keith's knowledge in Law helped him in being an entrepreneur
-Keith talks about the concept of RightRice and how he started producing the product
-How RightRice differs from normal rice and its benefits
-How Keith started Pop Chips and the challenges he faced in growing the business
-Keith talks about how he got the initial distributor for his products
-How Keith's experience with RightRice differed from the experience with Pop Chips
-RightRice's entry into the retail market and Amazon
-Keith's plans for the future of RightRice
-How the black packaging for RightRice came about
-The challenges faced in growing Pop Chips vs challenges in growing RightRice
-How Keith markets his products using social media & influencers
-Keith shares a story of how Jilian Michaels recommended Pop Chips on The Today Show
-Things Keith believes startups and entrepreneurs should know when building their brands
-How Keith got financing for launching his products
-Keith's advice for following your passion & building a brand you believe in
Keith Belling always loved rice but he found himself cutting back on its consumption because of all the empty calories and the carbs from the regular rice he got from the market. In an attempt to solve this problem, he was inspired to start creating a more nutritious and tasty rice product. Soon he came up with RightRice, a high protein, high fiber, low carbs, delicious and easy to cook rice.
However, getting such a product from a unique category noticed in the retail stores hasn't been easy. He has a wealth of advice that he shares in this episode as he talks about the reasons for starting both PopChips and RightRice, how he managed the various challenges he faced, and the reasons behind his decision to go for black packaging, which is not very common in the food industry. Stay tuned.
Our podcast today is sponsored by Kitchen2Shelf, the educational arm of NexxtLevel Brands. Kitchen-2-Shelf provides online and in-person courses and workshops for CPG entrepreneurs at any stage of growth.
Whether you're an early-stage startup, a local growing business, or if you want to just expand your distribution to a national level, Kitchen-2-Shelf can help you learn what you need to know to grow.
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