It’s been engrained in our brains from early age that carb-heavy foods are reserved for cheat days, marathon training, and comfort. But much like how there are many new purveyors challenging the meat industry with plant- and grain-based alternatives, now there are challengers coming for the grains themselves.
Founded in June 2021 and handmade in California, BetterBrand plans to introduce a new wave of comfort foods without restriction and without sacrificing flavor. Essentially, it wants to take the guilt out of guilty pleasures. And the company is starting with one of the most comforting, but carb-heavy, breads there is: the bagel.
The company has already received investments from Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, Hollywood actress Emmy Rossum, and Sean Thomas, the grandson of fast-food chain Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas.
Fortune recently spoke with founder Aimee Yang about the first year in business and the future of this alternative food category.
The following interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Fortune: Can you share a bit about your professional background and experience prior to founding BetterBrand?
Yang: I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I was intentional in gathering knowledge that I knew would one day prove to be valuable when I was ready to be in the founder’s seat.
I started my career at Ernst & Young as a certified public accountant (CPA} In Chicago to learn the fundamentals of how a company operates; spent time in Bangalore, India building EY’s Global Talent Hub to learn operations, teaming, and cross-cultural integration; then transitioned into litigation strategy in New York to learn how to distill solutions from large, incongruent data sets. I capped off my experience with an education capstone by getting my MBA at Wharton, where I double majored in entrepreneurship and strategic management.
What inspired you to launch BetterBrand?
BetterBrand was created with the large-scale vision of completely transforming the consumer experience with food. It stemmed from me trying to solve my own personal pain-point around diet and healthy eating. I was always on an endless cycle of wanting to eat something; if I did, I would feel guilty, if I didn’t, I would feel deprived. It consumed so much of my mind space and garnered so much negative anxiety. I used to dream of a world where I could eat the foods that I craved freely, without ever having to worry about weight gain or negative health consequences.
The more I dove into the data, the more I realized that this wasn’t just about me. The stats I found were astounding: chronic diseases associated with obesity and Type 2 Diabetes are now responsible for two out of every three deaths in America. Excess weight and obesity affect two-thirds of all American adults and 37 million children. 29 million Americans are diabetic and another 86 million are pre-diabetic—a total of 36% of the U.S. population. Worldwide, obesity is implicated in two-thirds of the leading causes of death from non-communicable diseases. And the consumption of refined carbohydrates (a $10 trillion+ market) is the single largest driver of obesity in the world.
Using technology to innovate in this area not only allows us to create that world we’ve always dreamed of, it also allows us to drive significant impact and improvement to human health on a macro level. What better way to start and put our stake in the ground as leading innovators in the refined carb space, than by transforming the most carb heavy food (a bagel) into the carb equivalent of two banana slices while being highly functional?
Bagels are comforting for a reason—they’re dense and chewy and tasty. What was your recipe tasting process like for recreating these attributes in a new, and presumably lighter, form factor?
“The Better Bagel” was designed to replicate the taste and texture of a regular bagel, just redesigned to be made better in every way. It has 90% fewer carbs, 250% more protein, and absolutely no added sugar. It’s completely plant-based, and we’re hyper-focused on ingredient quality. Everything is non-GMO certified, and our ingredient deck is completely clean label.
The Better Bagel allows you to fully enjoy your eating experience by removing any negative connections someone may have, and quieting that diet mentality some may feel by removing the negative health consequences of a “regular” bagel. This is the first step in creating a world where we can eat all the foods we crave, freely and without restriction. We’ve been so grateful for the excitement and positive response we’ve received across the board and the impact we’ve been able to drive in a short amount of time.
BetterBrand has already attracted a number of high-profile investors since launching just last year. Can you share more about what the pitch process was like? What advice would you give to other startup founders looking for funding? What might you do differently based on your experience so far?
We’ve been really lucky with our fundraising process in that we didn’t have to allocate time to fundraising. I wholeheartedly believe that, as a founder, if you have faith in your product and mission, you should get it out in the market as early as possible to start learning, driving impact, and telling your story. This also makes fundraising much easier; when investors find the product on their own, they become invested in the story. This also gives you clarity that they are the right investors who are aligned with your vision and have a genuine love for the brand.
This is how things materialized for our seed round: investors found us rather than the other way around, and that’s how we ended up with the most incredible group of investors including Alexis Ohanian’s 776 Fund, Kyle Vogt, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Soma Capital, Verso Capital, and so forth.
Looking forward in five years, how do you want to grow BetterBrand? What other kind of food products do you want to recreate next?
Our goal is to rival and disrupt the PepsiCo’s and Kraft’s of the world, transforming all categories of crave-worthy foods that are heavy in refined carbs into foods that functionally great for us. From pizza crusts, to burger buns, to soft pretzels—we intend to continue to transform the foods that we know can be better.
This is an installment of Startup Year One, a special series of interviews with founders about the major lessons they have learned in the immediate aftermath of their businesses’ first year of operation.