Sabeena Ladha, founder and CEO of the “good-for-you” snack model DEUX, has a “fairly deep relationship with junk meals.” That is “sort of a humorous factor to say,” she admits, however her childhood within the small city of Euless, Texas, the place her father ran a gasoline station and comfort retailer, kicked off the eagerness for snacks that might assist form her skilled endeavors.
“My mother and father labored 24/7,” Ladha remembers. “They’re immigrants, so they’d that onerous work ethic in-built them. So he was working 12-, 14-hour days, six, seven days per week, and on the weekends, my sisters and I’d go to the gasoline station, and we might get to select a snack. I at all times picked one salty and one candy snack.” They weren’t essentially probably the most healthful selections, however on the time, these merchandise weren’t fairly as “villainized” as they’re at the moment, she says.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of DEUX. Sabeena Ladha.
Though Ladha “regarded wholesome” as a highschool athlete who performed basketball and ran monitor, she quips that her “insides had been manufactured from partially hydrogenated oil and trans fat.” It wasn’t till school that she dove into well being and wellness, even beginning a weblog “earlier than it was cool” to unpack juice cleanses and cryotherapy.
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“Not everybody needs to eat a salad for each meal of the day, so how do you assist folks make barely higher choices?”
“[I was] attempting to make the scary world of wellness a little bit bit extra approachable for Sabeena in Texas,” Ladha explains. “Not everybody lives in Los Angeles and has entry to 18 farmers markets on a Saturday. That is simply not practical. And never everybody needs to eat a salad for each meal of the day, so how do you assist folks make barely higher choices?”
Answering that query in the end led Ladha to the “wholesome indulgences” idea of DEUX. The recent-pink model affords cookie doughs, dessert spreads and donut holes which can be vegan, gluten- and preservative-free and include “useful elements” like vitamin B12 to assist sustained vitality and L-Theanine to assist with cognitive perform and psychological focus.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of DEUX
Ladha was able to “break the principles” and innovate within the snack house, however she credit a lot of her success with the truth that she realized these guidelines earlier than she broke them. Her earlier experiences engaged on Frito-Lay at PepsiCo, managing a P&L at Diamond Meals, consulting at McKinsey & Firm and launching manufacturers in enterprise capital helped construct a robust basis for her entrepreneurial journey.
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“[Experimenting with scale] required some capital as a result of there’s numerous waste that comes with that.”
Ladha began experimenting with chocolate chip cookie dough in her kitchen in June 2020, when the pandemic was nicely underway, and many individuals wished to graduate from the “sourdough and wine part” and take pleasure in more healthy methods, she says. Right this moment, all of DEUX’s cookie doughs have an identical base, incorporating oats, nut butter, flaxseed and coconut sugar.
However one of many greatest challenges in these early days was determining the way to scale DEUX’s good recipe with a producer. “You’ll suppose it is [just] math, proper?” Ladha says. “Like, you simply scale up the recipe into making 3,000 kilos as an alternative of 1 pound. And it actually didn’t work like that. It received drier; it received a little bit bit extra dense. It wasn’t as candy. So you need to then undergo iterations, and that required some capital as a result of there’s numerous waste that comes with that too.”
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Initially, Ladha did not need to elevate capital; she put $20,000 of her personal cash into the enterprise and resolved to check the product first. Ladha was greater than prepared to pivot if the thought did not achieve traction, noting that she “wished an thought that might work” somewhat than one which needed to be “pressure match” into the market. However DEUX was “worthwhile on first ship,” and as soon as Ladha realized the intense potential there, she determined to lift.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of DEUX
Thus far, DEUX has raised about $6 million. The corporate’s first fundraising spherical kicked off in January 2021, and Ladha says that capital — and the power it gave DEUX to provide at a considerably larger quantity — made it attainable for her to seem on Shark Tank after its producers reached out. Ladha did not land a deal on the present, however DEUX has continued to see large development within the years since.
“[If you] take that sort of tech mentality and produce it to meals, it’ll simply enable you to perceive if there’s really product-market match.”
DEUX has transitioned from an completely direct-to-consumer (DTC) model to at least one with a big retail presence in Goal, Entire Meals, Sprouts Farmers Markets and extra. DEUX hit 1,000,000 items offered final 12 months and greater than doubled its retailer depend to 2,600 in 2023. And within the first half of 2024, DEUX will see that determine skyrocket once more with the launch of donuts at main retailers nationwide, totaling greater than 4,000 shops throughout its three product strains.
Ladha says that retail will make up the “lion’s share” of DEUX’s income this 12 months however stresses that DTC stays vital for the model for 2 causes: knowledge assortment and advertising and marketing alternatives. The previous helps the enterprise perceive who its clients are and which flavors resonate with them, and the latter has allowed it to discover model collaborations, like its current Buttercream Sugar Cookie with The Skinny Confidential.
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of DEUX
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Now, Ladha is targeted on making DEUX a family title — “full cease.” She envisions it as a “better-for-you Nestlé” with a contemporary twist and says a not-so-“horny” “tech mindset” helps it get there.
“It sounds a lot cooler to be like, ‘You understand, I used to be simply making this cookie dough for my family and friends, after which I went to a farmer’s market, and Entire Meals found me, and now I am at Entire Meals now nationally,'” Ladha says. “That is a cooler story, proper? However for those who can gather knowledge and take a look at and be taught and take that sort of tech mentality and produce it to meals, it’ll simply enable you to perceive if there’s really product-market match. That is why I joke, ‘Do not do it — however see for those who ought to do it.'”
