ChiChi Foods
Washington University in St. Louis, Olin Business School
Industry: Food & Beverage
Founding Student Name(s): Izzy Gorton and Chiara Munzi
Brief Description of Solution: Traditional quick breakfasts like oatmeal are high in carbs and sugar but low in protein. This imbalance causes a crash leaving you tired and hungry. We make breakfast out of chickpeas instead of oats, starting with the first ever chickpea hot cereal. Our chickpea hot cereal is naturally high in protein and fiber, low in sugar, gluten-free, grain-free, low glycemic, and made with only 1-6 simple ingredients. It keeps you full for hours, feeling light, and it doesn’t cause a crash. We fill a gap in the breakfast and hot cereal market by providing a naturally high protein breakfast option, especially for consumers who are plant-based and dairy-free, whereas other brands use egg whites or whey powders as a source of protein. Our mission is to replace all oats in the breakfast aisle with chickpeas.
Funding Dollars: We bootstrapped the business through college pitch competitions and raised $234k in equity free funding.
What led you to launch this venture? We were unsatisfied by traditional on-the-go breakfast foods. Most were sugar-filled, low protein, and highly processed. ChiChi started because of a personal need for a high protein breakfast option that wasn’t made with chalky protein powders that make your stomach hurt. We started mashing chickpeas into a flake in our dorms and eating them instead of oatmeal or cereal. After sharing the product with friends and family, we saw an opportunity to bring a nutrient-dense, more sustainable, and high protein oatmeal replacement to consumers who are health conscious or have dietary restrictions. We started ChiChi by sampling on campus, then we sold at community farmers markets, and after raising money from pitch competitions we scaled the business through a copacker. Now we sell in 34 grocery stores in LA and St. Louis and online.
What has been your biggest accomplishment so far with venture? Our biggest accomplishments have been selling out of our first two production runs. We have sold over 50k pouches of ChiChi online and in 34 grocery stores. Getting into Bristol Farms and Lassen’s in LA was a huge milestone. We also won an Amazon Prime accelerator competition called 60 Day Hustle where we secured $100k of equity-free funding.
How has your business-related major helped you further this startup venture? My major in Economics and Strategy has equipped me to think critically about market positioning and strategic growth, especially as we compete against much larger players in hot cereal. WashU Olin’s case-based learning fostered my entrepreneurial mindset, with key influences being my marketing class with Professor Sam Chun, core business courses with Professor Konstantina Kiousis, and my first entrepreneurship class with Professor II Luscri and Professor Joe Steensma. These professors really changed my life and challenged me to view myself as a decision maker, empowering me to make confident, strategic choices grounded in data. They also made the business world feel accessible, helping me see myself not just as a student with an idea but as a founder capable of building something bigger. Their guidance has shaped my vision for ChiChi’s future as a large company, expanding beyond our initial product line to reach a national and eventually global customer base.
Which business class has been most valuable in building your startup and what was the biggest lesson you gained from it? The business class that was the most valuable in building ChiChi was The League: Launching and Scaling New Enterprises taught by Professor Doug Villhard. The class introduced me to the inventor of chickpea hot cereal and my amazing co-founder Chiara Munzi and taught us to stop thinking and start doing. The class pushed us and aided us in getting our product in the hands of consumers immediately. It taught us to look for feedback right away and iterate to improve our product as soon as possible. Without The League, ChiChi wouldn’t exist.
What business professor made a significant contribution to your plans and why? Doug Villhard supported us in our pivot to chickpea hot cereal instead of our original idea in the class and pushed us to innovate quickly, gain fast traction, and get consumer feedback right away. He provided us with access to our dedicated mentor, Jerry Rosen, and gave us many opportunities to pitch to investors immediately. II Luscri also made a huge impact on our success and supported us every day by allowing us to stink up his space with cooking chickpeas, pushing us to enter pitch competitions, and supporting us with funding that was pivotal in our decision to build the company. He and the Skandalaris Center staff guided us through an entire summer working on the business full-time after which we were able to complete our first production run and launch online. We couldn’t have done it without their support.
What founder or entrepreneur inspired you to start your own entrepreneurial journey? How did he or she prove motivational to you? Tara Bosch the founder of SmartSweets inspired us to continue our entrepreneurial journey and expand our goals for ChiChi’s future. Tara dropped out of college at 21 to launch SmartSweets and pursue her vision of providing a healthier candy alternative that is low in sugar. She helped us build our mission of replacing oats with chickpeas in all breakfast products and helped us scale the business. She is an amazing example of a female founder who went all in early in life in the food business. She is our ideal role model.
What is your long-term goal with your startup? Our mission is to replace all oats in the breakfast aisle with chickpeas. In our future, we plan to expand from hot cereal to adjacent categories like bars, baking mixes, and more. Our goal is to be sold in all major retailers nationwide and then expand globally.
How has your local startup ecosystem contributed to your venture’s development and success? Our local startup ecosystem has been instrumental in our success, providing us with mentors like Jerry Rosen and Maxine Clark, who connected us to local suppliers willing to start with low volumes and helped validate our vision for ChiChi. Local St. Louis grocery stores gave us the opportunity to launch as a student startup, offering invaluable proof of concept that accelerated our growth and product innovation. St. Louis is a great place for entrepreneurship because of its supportive network, affordability, and strong sense of community. The city fosters innovation, particularly in the food industry, and is incredibly welcoming to new companies. We’ve also received continuous support from the Skandalaris Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, whose staff have been a crucial helping hand at every stage of our business.
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