The Cauliflower Ice Cream Revolution

Welcome to the delightful world of plant-based indulgence with Eat Kinda, the innovative brand pioneering cauliflower ice cream. In a fascinating episode of the 9 to 5 Wellness podcast, Aesha Tahir chats with Mili Kumar, co-founder of Eat Kinda, about the journey of bringing this unique dessert to life. From humble beginnings and sustainability goals to tackling allergy issues, this story is a blueprint for blending health, entrepreneurship, and innovation.  Let’s dive into their inspiring journey and uncover actionable insights on creating a market-changing brand.

1. Finding Inspiration in Personal Experience:

• Identify a Problem: Mili Kumar and her co-founder Jenny Matheson saw a gap in the market for delicious, allergen-friendly desserts. Both having had personal experiences with food restrictions, they aimed to create joyful moments for those unable to enjoy conventional treats.
• Connect Over Common Goals: Their shared discomfort at social events kickstarted the dream to craft an inclusive dessert, leading to the birth of Eat Kinda during a Dragon’s Den style business pitch.

2. Leveraging Unique Ingredients for Innovation:

• Choose Ingredients Wisely: The choice of cauliflower was driven not just by texture and taste but also sustainability, using it to create an experience akin to dairy without the downsides.
• Transparency in Production: Though the production process remains part of their intellectual property, it follows stringent safety standards, offering reassurance about the integrity of the product.

3. Consumer and Market Validation:

• Start Small, Dream Big: Eat Kinda initially tested their product in New Zealand’s market through a pizza chain, quickly selling out and proving demand through blind taste tests and social media feedback.

there’s been a lot of trial and error and R&D work that’s been done to create the product that we have today. Once we started going viral on social media during our launch in New Zealand, that’s what actually motivated us to bring it to the US, because we validated product market fit.

• Strategic Scaling: Following local success, Mili and Jenny took their brand stateside, conducting grassroots marketing efforts in Los Angeles to gauge the U.S. response, revealing significant potential.

4. Embracing Sustainability and Upcycling:

• Prioritize Sustainability: Eat Kinda champions using cauliflower effectively by working with farms to utilize produce that would otherwise be wasted due to aesthetic imperfections.
• Collaborate for Greater Impact: Mili acknowledges the challenges of scaling sustainably in the U.S. but remains focused on building a responsible supply chain with local growers.

5. Shattering Conventional Entrepreneurship Norms:

Especially as a woman founder and a form- founder of color, I think there’s a lack of representation.

• Diverse Leadership: With a diverse team in terms of age and background, Mili and Jenny illustrate that success doesn’t require adherence to traditional founder archetypes—it thrives on passion and purpose.

So we wanna show, yeah, we’re very different co-founders, but that’s fine, and you can also find a problem and solve it, and build a, hopefully, global business. And so that’s a personal motivation for me and Jenny. And hopefully, you know, through scaling Eatkinda, we’d be able to show that amazing things can be done.

• Global Aspirations: Their journey from university halls to global ambition showcases the power of determination, community support, and the willingness to take calculated risks.

Bottom Line

Mili Kumar’s journey with Eat Kinda is a compelling tale of culinary creativity rooted in personal experience and global vision. Check out the full story on the 9 to 5 Wellness podcast.

This post was originally a 9 to 5 wellness podcast