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Matt Feldman is the Co-founder and CEO of Moku Foods. Growing up in Hawaii, Matt was raised with an appreciation for nature and a lifelong commitment to preserve the environment. He learned at an early age about the meat industry’s immense carbon footprint, which led him toward plant based foods and sustainable food sources. A serial entrepreneur, Matt started his first business with his sister buying and selling used college textbooks. While attending college at Brook University, he co-founded Undorm.com, an online platform designed to help college students find affordable housing. He also co-founded his first food startup, Cinco Terras Specialty Coffee, during that time.
After graduating, Matt joined a leading technology company where he learned the ins and outs of growing an online business. In 2018, he transitioned to a vegan lifestyle and began looking for a replacement for his go-to-snack, beef jerky. He decided to create his own after struggling to find a minimally-processed, allergen-free alternative at the grocery store. He teamed up with two well-known culinary experts, Thomas Bowman and Ali Bouzari, to develop a jerky alternative that would emulate the taste and texture of the meat while remaining healthy for consumers and the planet. After over a year of development, the mushroom-based Moku was finally born. In 2020, Moku earned a coveted spot on Amazon's invitation only Emerging Brands Program. Matt is also one of Forbes 30 Under 30.
Matt Feldman's journey to find an alternative to beef jerky
How mushrooms are processed to make jerky
How Matt started the business while working full time
Matt explains what 'Moku' means and describes what he learned about scalability and finding a co-packer
How Matt grew the e-commerce side of the business after launching Moku in 2020
Matt talks about his product's flavors, compares his product to regular meat jerky and describes his target market
What Matt has learned from selling on Amazon and his future growth plans for the brand
How Moku Foods handles product fulfilment, how they communicate with their customers, and how they got into Amazon's invitation-only Emerging Brands Program
The DTC marketing strategies Moku Foods uses to engage with customers
The challenges Matt faced growing sales and increasing customer base and his advice to fellow entrepreneurs on handling such challenges
When starting a CPG brand to provide a healthy alternative to meat, most entrepreneurs target vegans or vegetarians. However, in reality, there are many consumers who choose to eat healthier alternatives without being vegan or vegetarian.
That’s what Matt Feldman from Moku Foods found out while growing his beef-jerky-alternative, CPG business. Most of his customers were people trying to shift from meat to plant based foods, which explained the high demand for his mushroom-based jerky. He therefore concentrated his marketing on this target audience.
In this episode of the NexxtLevel Brands Podcast, Steve Cleere is joined by Matt Feldman, Co-founder and CEO of Moku Foods, to discuss how Matt started producing mushroom-based jerky as an alternative to beef jerky. Matt also talks about how he fulfils orders, the challenges he faced scaling his business, and his advice for selling on Amazon.
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.
Visit their website to get access to some free tools that can help you understand where your business stands.
Contact them today to find out how they can help you grow your brand and expand your business to reach its full potential.
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