The Science of High-Protein Snacking to Scalable CPG Brand – Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hey there, entrepreneurs. My name is Sushant and welcome to Treptalks. This is the show where I interview successful e-commerce entrepreneurs, business executives, and thought leaders, and ask them questions about their business stories, and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses.

And today I’m really excited to welcome Dr. Juan Salinas to the show. Dr. Juan is the founder of Pnuff Crunch. Pnuff Crunch is the only baked peanut, peanut puff made from protein filled peanuts, fiber, full navy beans and energy lasting rice, and there are no added flavors or preservatives. Now, before we dive into the this interview, if you enjoy this kind of content, please make sure to hit the like and subscribe button, and for more interviews like this, please visit us at treptalks.com And with that, Dr. Juan, welcome and thank you so much for joining me today, treptalks Really, really appreciate your time.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah, man. What’s up Han? Thank you very much for having me, man. This is a pleasure being here.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I’m very excited about this interview. Um, now you have a very interesting story. Um, I watched your Shark Tank episode and you shared a little bit about how you, I guess, immigrated to the US and you’ve done different degrees and you have a lot of experience in the fruit, uh, preparation industry.

So maybe can you share briefly about. A little bit about your background and kind of what motivated you to start this business.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah, man. Sure man. Uh, so I’m from Honduras, central America, small little country in Central America. Um, I came here, I believe it was 1985 and I had just finished high school and I was just really eager to, you know, get into the United States and.

Just take advantage of the education, you know, higher education here at the college level. So, um, I was fortunate enough that my parents, you know, were willing to sacrifice, uh, everything they had to send me here. And, uh, you know, I took advantage of it. Um, I got my PhD from Rutgers University, um, and then I went on to work for some of those large CPG companies You mentioned.

Um, like, like Kraft, Rebisco you know, Cadbury, I basically went around, man, I, I did a little bit of go around between all the big ones, um, for about, I don’t know, 20, 25 years until I decided to start my own business. So it’s, it’s, uh, I learned a lot, you know, from, uh, the big companies and from college. And then I figure, let me apply this to, uh, my own company and see how it goes.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, I mean, it looks like it’s a, a great business and uh, also a great product because, uh, this is protein, uh, product. Can you talk a little bit about the product and, you know, what is its unique benefits?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah, man. So this is a protein puff. I call it a protein puff. It’s, it’s functional snack, you know, um, I call this functional because it’s, it’s a snack that tastes good, but instead of just having empty calories, like most other snacks, you actually have some benefit to it, you know?

Um, our products have 20 grams of protein in a bag. They’re, uh, full of fiber and it’s all natural fiber from, from the beans and the ingredients themselves. Um, there’s like very little, uh, sugar added to it. The most is two grams on one of our products, and it’s all made from clean, um, you know, ingredients that you can pronounce and that you no, so there’s nothing funny, no chemicals, no preservatives.

Um, it was basically done. Um, so that. You know, it was as close as, as a, a whole food that you can get, but with all the nutrition, so, you know, uh, very good tasting product, high protein, high fiber, good for any occasion really.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And the great thing about it is, you know, there’s a huge fitness enthusiast.

Industry, uh, in North America and across the globe. Now, now I think more and more people are becoming more, you know, fitness conscious and people are always looking for, you know, either snacks or, or things that are, you know, that are high protein. Not a lot of calories, not sugar. So I think this fits or targets a very, uh, very big market.

Um, what have you, like when you started this, did you do any research or did you kind of have an instinct that there’s like a, that’s going to be a big demand for it?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Um, I did a little research man, so the way that it came about, um, personally, I’m really into fitness, right? I’ve been doing a lot of bodybuilding and working out and, and, uh, just doing a lot of sports.

So I was always interested on the nutrition part, you know, what kind of foods. Do I need to eat to perform on my best? So that was always a thing for me. Um, and uh, one of my last jobs was at Nestle and I was working for the Performance Nutrition Division. And what they did is that they actually used science to create new products.

They had the product called Power Bar, and if you, if you remember Power Bar. But Power Bar was the first bar and it was a bar made for people that were into running. So it provided the energy that they needed so they could go, you know, and run a marathon. Um, and then they started, you know, basically merging into more high protein products and things like that.

And that’s why I came in. I came in as a, as a director for product development to try to come up with new, you know, new, new ways of in incorporating. You know, food for athletes. Um, and so I learned a lot about the needs of the body in terms of nutrients. And what I wanted to do is create, you know, when I started my business I figured, you know, I think that there is a gap there where.

You know, there’s a product that could have similar nutrition to what most of us need, you know, as, as active adults and, and, and young adults and kids. Uh, but, um. But in the snack area, you know, uh, something that you could just have in the middle of the day without being a total meal replacement or a full bar.

And so that, and you know, it’s like, and I feel like everything is just chewy, wet, you know, shakes. It’s like there isn’t anything that is actually crunchy that you could enjoy. Uh, so that’s how I come up with this crunchy puff idea, um, that had the protein and, and all the other nutrients that, you know, um, we need as, as active people.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: And, uh, I totally agree. I mean, it’s not just daytime. I think, you know, people get a lot of cravings at night. Nighttime, they, they want snack or something. Um,

Track 1: might

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: not have something good. Right. If you’re gonna have, if you’re gonna have something indulge, you might as well feel good about it and not feel guilty after you’re done with it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Exactly. Exactly. Um, so when you launched, can you talk a little bit about your launch and. Um, maybe even before launch, like what was, I know you were in this industry and you were very experienced in, in the product development itself. Um, did you kind of create, come up with this product yourself? Like, did you do it in your own kitchen?

Did you work, uh, some with some sort of a commercial kitchen? How did you come up with this product and then how did you kind of launch it?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Right here on my kitchen right there, man, right next to the pot on Pan, you know, that, uh, I was cooking everything else, but, um, that’s kind of how I started it, you know, and, and just to kind of come up with some little concepts with, but my product is a form that you can’t just make on a kitchen.

Um, it’s made by a specific, um, uh, equipment that it’s, it’s a massive big equipment that, you know, basically not everybody has. So I had to go on search for this equipment, um, and I ended up doing some of my work in around the Illinois area, like Chicago area. There was a company there that was a manufacturer of this equipment and I asked them to see if I could come in for a day or two and kind of start messing around with some different formulas.

Uh, but you know, the flavor part, that’s something that I could do at home. That’s something I could do in my own kitchen. Um, you know, once I had the puff, the base made at the man at, at the bigger machine, then I could bring those and kind of season in different ways. And, and so that part of the, of the development, I did it right here.

So that’s how I came up with the peanut base, uh, the cinnamon. And then later I did the cocoa. Now we have a cheddar, jalapeno, and a barbecue, which, you know, again, that’s stuff that it could be done here.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Um. What kind of investment did you have to make at the beginning? Um, I mean, just by the sounds of it, because you created it in your own kitchen and you’re working with a, uh, you know, bigger company, uh, to, I guess rent their equipment or something.

Uh, I’m assuming that it sounds like it, it didn’t require a lot of investment, but. Uh, what, what was, I mean, did you make a lot of personal, uh, investment into this business?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah. I mean, I guess you could say it wasn’t as high as the, as it could. Potentially could have been. Uh, but my investment on my personally, but you know, from my own funds was about 250,000.

Luck. Yeah. So it’s, you know, it seems like, I don’t know, you know, it, it, I, I, I heard of people spending, you know, 500,000, you know, before they actually launch, um, if, if they have to do some, you know, trials and things like that. Um, so. Uh, that got me, that kind of money got me going through the first couple years actually.

So it wasn’t just to launch, but actually to get going, you know, with all the other marketing expenses that I had to do at the beginning, you know, building my website and. And, um, creating marketing material sales, sales material and stuff like that. Um, and then soon after that, uh, I actually had my brothers invest in the company for another about $200,000.

Uh, and that was for purchasing of some equipment. So we actually have the equipment to make the product now, and we manufacture our product and our own equipment. So that came from that investment, you know, uh, that was the, that was, you know, after probably two or three years, you know, into the business.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um. Did you launch it? At what point did you launch it? Like, did you launch, like did the product development process take two to three years or, uh, you

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: purchased the equipment, the development, I, I started the company in 2015, I believe. I actually had product made into consumer’s hands about a year and a half after that.

So it took me about a year of product development. Um, but then, um. I was started. When I started. I started manufacturing at a co manufacturer. I was there, um, for maybe a year or so. And the problem with my product is that it has peanuts in it and peanuts is a allergen. So a lot of manufacturing facilities didn’t want a product with allergen in, in their facilities ’cause they can’t segregate it from the rest of it.

So everywhere I went, you know, it was either a no or hey, we’ll try it. And then it was, no, we can’t do it. We can’t segregate it. And that’s the reason why it was ended up buying our own equipment. Um, but the first year, first year and a half, I have found, uh, this one guy out in, in Florida who was willing to try it.

And we worked with him for about a year and a half until he decided that, uh, you know, he wasn’t getting more business from other companies because of the peanut. So, um, we had to go

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: have you, uh. Do all of your products contain peanuts or have you since then substituted for a different, like let’s say plant protein or something?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: No, you know, the basis for the product was peanut. I thought about, you know, saying no more peanuts, but that was kind of what makes us unique and different. And in a way it was sort of a competitive advantage ’cause nowhere else. Was able to do it, you know, because of the same issues. Uh, so everybody was kind of staying away from peanut.

Uh, we brought it in and say, you know what, we’ll just gonna embrace it and, and fight through it. And that’s exactly what we did. Uh, so our products still have peanuts in it, um, which now I think, I believe we’re the only manufacturing facility in the Northeast that can handle peanuts, uh, with this type of process.

So, you know, it’s kind of, uh. It’s kind of brought, uh, some competitive advantage to it.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, that makes me think that, I mean, this is a business for you, but you could be in a, a manufacturing business itself. Like if other companies want you to create their products because you’re such a specialized facility.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: I know, and to be honest, to tell, you know, not to make the story very long, but we did got into manufacturing thinking exactly what you just said. Um, and we started our own facility. We built it up here in New Jersey. But, uh, it was, it was just very, um, it was hard, man. It was hard to be doing the brand and manufacturing at the same time.

And I felt like, you know, we had to choose one or the other.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hmm.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Um, and so, you know, I have my passion for the brand personally. Uh, so I figured, you know what, let me stick to the brand. And try to find a place where somebody else could make my product. Uh, that’s, that’s where we stand today. You know, we have a co manufacturing facility, but I did, I did give it a try, man.

And I think you have to have a, you know, you gotta have a passion for what you do, man. If you don’t really like what you. What you doing, even though there’s money to be made, I don’t know. It’s not as fulfill as fulfilling, at least that, that’s how I felt, you know? Um, so I decided to stick to the brand and, and give the manufacturing out.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. No, I, I think that makes complete sense. And, you know, um, I think that’s a decision that every entrepreneur makes, you know? How big they want their dis a business to be or you know, how focused or how broad. And I think that’s a completely fair, right, fair choice. Right. Um, when you launched, did you see an immediate uptake?

I mean, your, the value proposition is very strong. And so anybody who’s seeing, who’s a nutrition enthusiast, exercise fitness person, like they would want to go, go, you know, try it out rather quickly. Yeah. Um, did you see a quick, immediate uptick.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Um, initially, yes, but it’s funny man, because when we first launched, really the protein craze has, wasn’t there.

You know, like I feel like the protein craze has been kind of growing in the last two, three years, you know? Now it’s like I speak, I think, so you start seeing a lot of products with protein now everywhere. But when I first launched about eight years ago. Protein wasn’t really that big, you know? Um, there was more of a keto, you know, gluten-free.

That’s what was going on back then. Um, so, you know, we got a lot of attention because of the flavor profile. So, you know, it was the first peanut tasting puff, kinda like a Cheeto, but with peanuts, you know, and that’s what caught the attention, not, not the protein and everything else. So, so, you know, so actually the product we we’re naming a peanut puff, now we changed it to protein puff because peanut puffs became almost like not an interest anymore, you know, after a few years.

And now, you know, well we always wanted to convey was the protein anyway. So now we’re, you know, like delighted that. The market has gone this way and we’re actually taking advantage of it now, but, uh, you know, it, it took off because of the flavor profile and now because of the functionality, which is great.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: It almost seems like, or it almost sounds like that there is a bigger market. I mean, there’s a market for protein. There may be a bigger market for people who just want the puff puff and don’t, don’t care about the nutritional profile as long as you give them the cheese and the good flavor.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Percent man.

Hundred percent. And like, I can’t tell you how many times we talked about that, because obviously our product was more expensive than a regular, you know, cheese puff or Cheetos because of all the ingredients that we’re putting in there. And the protein. Protein is very expensive. Mm-hmm. So our product was always higher.

Higher price than everything else. And yet, you know, we had a, a, a good flavor. So we were always thinking, Hmm, what if we just forget about the protein and all this stuff and just provide a flavorful puff, you know? But, um, we decided that, you know, now let’s just stick to, to, you know, what we made the product for, which is the functionality, the protein, and, and, you know, make sure.

It’s got something better than just, uh, empty calories.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Do you now think about expanding your product portfolio? So for example, I mean, when I go out and I’m looking for like, uh, those, uh, taco things, I’m looking for the ones with higher protein or, you know,

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, when I go out shopping everything I’m looking for like, you know, which one has higher protein, uh, and it seems like.

There is an opportunity to have either other products in the snack, uh, uh, category or maybe even a different category where you can create other products with higher proteins. Like, have you ever considered that? Yeah,

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: I mean, I, I tell you, you, you got it. Because one of the things that we noticed is how people use our product, you know, and one of the ways that they use it is, is a cereal.

Yeah, for breakfast. So that’s, that’s an opportunity there for us to introduce this product. Almost like a, a cereal snack, you know, something that maybe shaped differently, uh, and, and more, a more of a, a, a breakfast treat that you can have on the run, on the go, you know, even without having to use a liquid, like a milk or oat milk, whatever, you know, something that you still have dry, that’s an opportunity.

Another one is, you know, there’s. There’s all these trends going on right now, you know, weight loss, for instance. Um, our product, you know, it’s, it could be a easily, it could be a snack that is fit for people that are on weight loss, you know, in their worst weight loss journey, you know, whether it’s, you know, semaglutide or whatever.

It’s got the fiber, you know, it’s got the protein density, uh, which is what they’re recommending, um, people that are on, on this diet, you know? Um, so that’s another spin that you can take. Um, same with, uh, gut friendly. You know, our products are low, which means that basically, uh, our, for people who are sensitive, you know, to certain foods, our products don’t have those ingredients that make them.

Stomach upset. Mm. So we have a love law format, you know, certification, um, that we can, we can promote. But you know, again, it’s kind of like, okay, what do we, where do we, where do we wanna be? You know?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: What do we wanna do? Um, and that’s kind where we’ve actually transitioned a few times. You know, we actually done the gut friendly thing and then we transitioned back to protein.

Before then, it was just about flavor. It is just kind of, uh, depends where, you know, where the market, what the market’s looking for. But, uh, it feels like the product that we made, it just fits into so much different,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: you

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: know, opportunity. There’s so much different opportunities ’cause it just, it’s just well engineered product.

Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: You

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: know, so,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: and you are, and your manufacturing is in completely in, in North America, right? Like, so you’re not impacted by tariffs and all these.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: No, not directly. So I mean, I think everybody’s impacted indirectly. Okay. We get all our ingredients from here, but, but I know for instance, the spices, right?

A lot of the ingredients in this, in the seasonings are coming from overseas. And so we buy the seasoning from an American company, but they’re getting it from India or from China, and they’re seeing higher prices. So we’re getting, we’re being affected by that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Um, are you, so I see that you have a website, but I’m assuming that this kind of a product, which could be an impulse purchase or it could be more of like, you know, once a person gets used to your product, then, you know, when they’re doing their grocery shopping, then they’re picking it up like that.

Um, is it mostly, is it primarily a, a retail, uh, uh, business or do you see a lot of uptake on your. Direct to consumer also.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: So right now it’s about 50 50 and it’s, it is, it’s changed. You know? So when we first started, before 2020, let’s say it was all retail, right? Uh, 2020, it was COVID time. So after 2020, it was all, mostly all online, you know, ’cause we didn’t have much access to, to brick and mortar stores.

And we had to pivot and start to figure it out. How do we sell our product? And online became very, you know, became huge. Everybody was buying groceries online, so we decided to play the same game. And so we started selling a lot online. Uh, now that things are kind of back to normal, you know, uh, retailers now dri uh, driving again.

So now we’re getting back into retail again. So. We are about 50 50 right now between, you know, direct to consumer and, and retail. Um, I think it is good business. Both are good businesses, you know. Um, we see actually a lot of our product being bought at the grocery store, but through orders online, so, you know, home delivery, you know, Instacart or.

You know Amazon, right?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Mm-hmm.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Uh, people are ordering from Whole Foods, but they’re delivering it to their home because they’re ordering online. We’re seeing a lot of that too. So it’s, uh, I think the online e-commerce opportunity for food is, is still pretty good.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Mm-hmm.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: But your e-commerce probably has a higher margin, right?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Than retail? Yes.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Than retail. Yeah. I.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Our website much better than Amazon. Uh, for instance, uh, and retail kind of sits somewhere in between.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. So Amazon is the worst.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Oh, yeah, man.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Amazon takes away all the money. Okay.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: It’s like, you know, it’s like you have to be there. You don’t wanna be there, but you have to.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: And, uh, you know, we compete against Amazon ourselves. Like we have product on Amazon. But we wanna sell through our website ’cause we get better, you know, margins. And now we’re trying to figure it out. How do we beat our ownselves in Amazon? How do we make, how do we tell people that come to our website not to go to Amazon?

You know?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. One, one strategy that I, I was talking to another business and one strategy that they did is I think they increased the price on Amazon. So when somebody saw. The product, it was higher price there, but then they searched it online and they found the website and it was lower price there. So they went, they, they went and purchased it online.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah. Mean we try to, you know, one of the things we’re doing is actually with we on our website. You could build your own. Let’s say we have a six pack. You could build your own six pack. So you can put as many flavors and different variations as you want, which you cannot do at an Amazon. You know, Amazon is, is a set, you know, whatever it is, is set.

So that’s one way of, you know, where we provide a little extra.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hmm.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Um, you know, we also do promo a lot of promotions on the website. Uh, that we don’t do on Amazon. You know, usually Amazon, we just let it go at the same as the same price.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hmm.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Um, but you know, it’s hard to beat them on delivery, you know?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: And that’s, we, that’s what we lose is delivery, you know, free shipping if you have Prime and, and receive it the next day. That’s, that’s kind of impossible for us to, to do.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. Yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: In terms of your marketing, um, do you do a lot of marketing? Um, do you do paid advertising or is it, uh, mostly word of mouth and, uh, organic?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah, so right now we do, we’re doing mostly organic. We’ve done a lot of paid advertising. We, we actually done tv. We actually don’t, uh, like meta ads, you know, Google, Google Ads. Uh, we’ve worked with some influencers not to. The level of, uh, you know, more than 10 million or something. But micro influencers, nano influencers, um, and, uh, you know, but mostly what we’re doing today is organic social media, uh, events, event marketing.

You know, we try to do a lot of, uh, especially local events, you know, where we have. Retailers, you know, here in New Jersey we have Whole Foods, right? We’re on Wegman’s shop, right? So we try to support those by going to, you know, trying to hit events, you know, uh, especially where we know there’s gonna be some more consumers, you know, people that are looking for healthier alternatives.

Um, so that seems to be working well for us. Uh, email marketing, we do that too, but again, it’s mostly. Organic. Yeah,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: no, I think, I think that makes sense. Um, but I would say that I would think that, you know, for a brand, um, there, there would still be a lot of opportunity even within the US like, uh, I mean in terms of brand recognition or I’m sure like a large portion of the population doesn’t, still doesn’t know about your product, so, yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah, I mean. It’s, it’s expensive, man. That’s the thing. Like we, what we noticed is that, um, with our budget, you know, what we were playing with on meta ads was not enough to make a difference. You know, 2000, $3,000 a month for us wasn’t doing anything,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: you

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: know, so after talking to, you know, some of our partners, the Mark Cuban team and everybody else, it’s like, man, it’s like.

There’s these brands that are actually doing well with meta ads and Google Ads are spending $20,000 a month, you know, $30,000 a month. That’s where we’re seeing, you know, some returns. But, you know, 2000, 3000 is like, man, I think you better spend that money on, you know, sampling and doing more of a local, you know, marketing.

So that’s, that’s what we decided to do.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Speaking of Mark Cuban, um, I wanna briefly talk about your Shark Tank experience. So, uh, I just, I was watching it and I think what Mark Cuban said, I will change your life. I mean, when, when did, when were you on Shark Tank and Yeah. Uh, I’m assuming you, you’ve gone through the deal.

Uh, what kind of support have you received from Mark Human?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: I was in Shark Tank in 2020. Okay. I think the program aired around October, I believe, or something like that. Uh, we were one of the first ones from that season, which is great. Um, but uh, we made the deal with Mark Cuban and we did it exactly as we set it on tv, like nothing changed.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hmm.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Uh, I’ve spoken to a lot of brands that say that things change. You know, some deals don’t go through some. It changed a lot in terms of, you know, um, the, the, in terms of the terms. But for us, he just went through, it was clean. He’s still our partner, you know, we work with them, uh, pretty much on a weekly basis, not with Mark himself, but with his team.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hmm.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: You know, we have, uh, a team that he assigned to, I guess probably all his brands. Uh, so they help us out with marketing strategy. They help us out with. Try to get into, you know, like if we have a, you know, if, if we’re looking for a specific retailer, for instance, like there’s someone there that I could ask, Hey, you know, can you introduce me to someone at Target?

You know, I’m trying to get to Target, let’s say something like that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hmm.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Uh, so we get that kind of support, uh, mark also, you know, more of a high level strategy, like he helped us with the rebranding of, of, of the product. You know, when we first started with him. He, you know, he felt like we needed to do a refresh on, on the, the bags and everything else.

So we did that with him. Uh, so it’s been great, man. I mean, it’s, it is been helpful just to have his name behind it, you know?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: We can go into a sales presentation and just say, Hey, yeah, we got Mark Cuban, you know, on our team. It makes a difference already. Just

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Knowing that hey, this guy actually believes in them.

There must be something about these guys, you know?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Um, and then, you know, personally what, what they do for us on a weekly basis is, is nice. So

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: that’s awesome. Yeah. I mean, shark Tank has. Um, and of course Mark Cuban both, both, uh, are such, uh, well-known names, global names. It’s like instant credibility.

It opens probably so many doors. Right. Um, I want to, yeah. I want to ask you briefly about your own health and because in your in Shark Tank, you took, took, took off your shirt and I mean, even I, when I was watching it, I was like, that’s, that’s credibility also, like when you see someone. Uh, with like good, you know, body and muscle, like, like you have to give them certain credit about, you know, their discipline and work ethic and all those things.

And I think, um, that probably made a difference in, in terms of you getting the deal also. Um, can you talk a little bit about your, like what, uh, if, if I want to get, get that kind of body, like what is the secret? Because I’m, I’m looking for that secret and I’m sure you know, other people are also Yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Um, you know, it is funny because like when I, when I did that, uh, you know, for everybody that they haven’t watched it, I think it’s season, uh, 12, episode two or something like that you can find on YouTube if you do it like Shark Tank Peanut, but basically midway through it, right?

I just like, I’m telling, I’m telling ’em about this product that is good for you and it’s good for your body. And I was like, ah, okay. You know, here, here’s the proof, his proof of it. And I did get, I did, I did get a lot of laughs, I gotta say, you know, um, probably too many to the point where like, I forgot where I was on my pitch, you know?

And Mark was actually,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I think, I think that sold more than probably your pitch. I think. I mean, I’m telling you it’s like that’s, that’s instant credibility.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah. So, um, you know, I, I’ve been, I’ve been active, you know, all my life. I, I love sports, but I never really got into muscle building until I. After college and, you know, I just, you know, I, I was kind of a skinny kid in a way, and, uh, I wanted to get, you know, more bulk.

So I started reading a lot about, you know, muscle magazines, you know, what the pros were doing to. To work out and everything else. One thing that I found that was very, like, I felt like the exercises were the same, but one thing that vary a lot is like the nutrition. Like there was so many different opinions about what you should be eating, you know?

Um, back in the eighties it was all about carbs, you know, and after that it was like no carbs, you know? Then it was like, no fat, then it was fat, you know, a lot of fat Then. Uh, then it was like more protein, less protein. And so there was a lot of, I think, misunderstanding, you know, uh, as to what was required.

And that’s one of the reasons why I, you know, got more interested in learning about sports nutrition. And what I learned is that. You know, to achieve the physi that you want. You know, it’s not all about exercising. You know, you could exercise all you want, but if your nutrition is poor, you’re not gonna see the results that you are looking for.

Uh, I think, you know, people throw numbers and percentages, you know, they say it is, you know, 70% nutrition, 30% exercise. Maybe that’s about right. Uh, but I can tell you that someone that has worked out for 10 years. Has had poor nutrition, you might not even be able to know that this guy goes to the gym all the time.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: You know, uh, yeah. Someone that maybe goes two or three times, you know, a week to the gym and does for one hour and has a really great nutrition. You will see that this guy is like, holy crap, you know, this guy’s chisel. I want to have his body. You know?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: So, um, it’s all about sh you know, we already have muscle.

So it’s almost about, it’s, it is more about showing the muscle that you already have and how do you do that through nutrition, you know, exercise. What it does is that increases the volume of the muscle that you already have, but it’s the nutrition that is gonna show it off. So the, the main thing, you know, for everybody that’s listening, carb control, that’s what it’s all about is carbs, control and make sure that you get enough protein.

You know, if there’s two things is make sure you have enough protein and make sure that you control your carbs. ’cause your carbs is what makes you, uh, gain weight and feel like bloated and, and gain fat, you know? Um, so you wanna make sure that. You have carbs ’cause you need ’em for energy, but not over, you know, not in Nexus that it stores, you know, in your body as fat.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, but it, it, it, it does require a lot of discipline and, uh, uh, restraint, I guess, you know, to be able to eat. Very healthy, very clean, consistently avoid carbs because it’s, I mean, it’s challenging,

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: but you know, like what I did, what I tell people right. That ask me, um, I said, look, you gotta do it. You can’t.

It is tempting to do it all at once. You know, uh, say, you know, I wanna do exactly what Arnold Schwar Network is doing. You know, it’s very hard to do that. I think you need to kind of do it in steps. Mm-hmm. The first step is like, okay, this is what I eat. First thing I’m gonna do is I’m gonna cut the amount of what I eat.

So I’m gonna eat the same things, but instead of eating, you know, one slice, two slices of pizza, let me cut it in half. I’m gonna have one slice of pizza. Now, as you start seeing, you’ll start seeing the change. I, I can guarantee it. And then once you start seeing the change, it’s like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on, man.

I like this.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hmm?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: I wanna keep going. Okay. What’s my next step? Now it’s like, okay. Instead of having the pizza, let’s make the pizza more healthy. So, you know, take half the cheese, you know, get the whole wheat, you know, bread, things like that, you know, and then you, then you graduate to the next level where it’s like, okay, I’m not gonna have the pizza anymore.

I’m just gonna have a toast with like, some, you know, sauce and maybe a little bit of cheese, you know, and, and you keep graduating like that until it just becomes part of your life. Like I eat. I could go to any restaurant, you know, and eat healthy, because I tell, you know, right away, I’m like looking at the, at the dish, it’s like, okay, this stuffs like food fully with with cheese.

So I tell ’em right away, okay, hold the cheese, no cheese. Or if I’m gonna have a salad, it’s like, you know, what kind of dressing do you have? Do you have just vinegar? You know, instead of, you know, some fatty dressing. You know, so you, you start to like, understand. You know, food and you start to, you start to understand what is excess calories and which is not right for you, and you start to modify and it becomes easy, man, you know, it becomes really easy.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I think, I think it’s, yeah, it’s, it’s great advice. You know, start somewhere, wherever you are, make incremental improvements. And as you see improvements, as you feel good, I think it’ll motivate you. It’ll, you know, help you build that momentum and, you know, become even better. So I, I think that’s a great advice.

Yeah. Um, in every entrepreneur journey, there’s always mistakes made, lessons learned, failures. Since you’ve started this business, what is a, like a big mistake that comes to mind or a failure? What lesson you learned from it, and what can other entrepreneurs learn from your mistakes?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah, man, there’s so many, but you know, I always think back, it’s like, oh, what would’ve done differently?

I think, you know, every, every entrepreneur has his own journey, you know? I feel like sometimes we tend to look at other entrepreneurs that maybe have grown really fast and then sold their, their company for millions of dollars. You know, like. Oh my God. You know, what did this guy do that I haven’t done?

You know? And the reality is that they haven’t done probably anything different than what you’re doing. They’re probably doing the exactly the same. They probably went through the same questions and things that you did, but somehow they might have been in the right place at the right time. You know, when something happened, good for them.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Hmm.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: And not everything happens for everybody the same way. So you just gotta have your own journey, you know, follow your own journey, follow your own, you know, uh. Your own process. Uh, don’t, don’t get frustrated. You know, don’t get discouraged by seeing your, your peers move, you know, selling faster than you are, or growing faster than you are.

You have no idea what they’re going through. They might have, they might be incomplete debt and soon enough they might be out of business while you’re growing slowly and having a profit, you know, and, and. Basically making it farther than they would. Um, so that’s one thing that I would say, you know, just, just, you know, look at your own journey and yeah, don’t ignore, you know, don’t ignore the things that are around you.

Ask for a lot of questions. Um, that’s one thing that probably didn’t do at the beginning. Like, I felt like I knew everything. ’cause I came from the food industry and I should. I probably had a little more, uh, you know, discussions with some other entrepreneurs about, you know, hey, you know, in this case, what do you guys do?

You know, I, you know, I, I kind of just went in and started swinging at the bat. Mm-hmm. And I, I missed a lot of balls because that probably didn’t have the right mentorship that could have guide me, you know, to, to get, to get better, uh, you know, better business. Um, so I think initially I missed a lot of business because just.

Naiveness, you know? Um, so built a good network, you know, get a good mentor, you know. Talk through, talk through things with, with them. Try to learn as much as you can and then just focus on, on your, on your business, you know?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Okay. Yeah, that’s, that’s great. Um, advice. Now I’m going to move on to our rapid fire segment.

In this segment, I’m going to ask you a few quick questions and you have to answer them maybe in a word or a sentence or so. So the first one is one book recommendation for entrepreneurs and why.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Oh man. Um. It’s funny, I, I feel embarrassed to say I don’t read books, man. I, I listen to podcasts, you know?

Okay. Um, and not a lot about entrepreneurship, but mostly about religion. You know, I, I get inspired by religion. Um, I feel it’s helped me the most on my business. Um, and the reason is because of. There’s so much you can do, and there’s a lot of stress and frustration, you know, when you’re running a business and you gotta believe that there’s something else out there that is helping you get through it beyond your capabilities because you, you can only discern so much.

And after that, you know, you have to believe that, you know, God is out there, you know? Uh. Guiding you and taking a trip. So I do listen to a lot of podcasts, uh, about, you know, about religion and, and, you know. Stuff like that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: No, I mean, that, that’s, that’s definitely a unique answer and I can understand, um, that, you know, faith can definitely, uh, make things easier when, you know, there’s difficult times going on and so forth.

So very, very interesting advice, um, and innovative product or idea in the current e-commerce retail or tech landscape that you feel excited about.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: You know, um, man, there’s, I can’t remember the name of it, but there’s a watch, you know, that kind of, um, it is, it doesn’t tell you a time, but really what it’s doing is reading your, your body.

And telling you, you know, your signals, like what’s going on with your heart, what’s going on with, you know, if you’re stressed, it basically tells you. Um, and I think that’s, that’s amazing what this thing can do and what it could be doing in the future. Because I feel like I’m my age, for instance, I’m, you know, I’m 50, 56 years old and.

Everything that I do now I feel like is gonna affect, affect me, you know, a couple years later. So I wanna make sure that my body is like performing at its best, best, is tuned up to the best. And if I have a tool, you know, that could tell me, Hey man, you just went out drinking. It’s like all your bios are like crazy, going crazy.

I was like, okay man, you know what I’m gonna. Maybe, you know, cut down a little bit on the drinking or, or maybe I need to step, you know, walk around a little more or do whatever. I forget the name of the, of the watch, man. But, uh,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I think, I think trying,

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: it’s

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: very expensive

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: right now.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. I, I think these days there’s, there’s, there’s quite a few products.

I mean, I think it’s called the quantitative, quantitative self movement. Right. Where I think there’s like a ring that, that, that does the same thing. It, it collects data. There’s like watches even I think, yeah, I Smart watches like the Apple Watch and things like that. Yeah. They do collect some data also.

So then that’s a, that’s a great, uh, product.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Uh, a business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tip.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: A business or product? Well, I, that product I like, uh, technology, I think everybody should be looking at ai, you know, so that’s one thing I’ve integrated into everything I do, man.

You know, from the simplest thing, like, you know, using chat GPT for everything to whatever tools that out there that could help you build a better. You know, canvas or, or, you know, build better images or better emails or websites or whatever. I mean, take advantage of that stuff, man. It’s amazing. It’s amazing.

It, it drives me crazy when I talk to someone and they’re like, oh yeah, I don’t know, like, you know, or like, dude, just out GPT, man. You know, like, at least get started that way, you know? Um. So, I mean, I would recommend that to every entrepreneur. Make sure they, they embed themselves into it, man. Spend the time to, to learn more about, you know, what this thing can do and use it, you know?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah. I mean, it has, it has improved productivity so much. It’s like you can do things now that would take you hours to do before. So it’s, it’s definitely a great productivity to amazing, um, a peer entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Man, I would say, uh, seems like an obvious, but I mean, some people hate him, but Elon Moss man, to me is being like.

Someone that I, I admire, man. I mean, the way that he does business, you know, he believes in his own businesses, by the way. He invests his own money, right? And then he, he just does things that people think is crazy and unachievable, and he makes him happy. I mean, I, I’m a sucker for Tesla, man, you know? I got a Tesla car.

I, I got this self-driving thing going on and I don’t drive anymore, man. It’s like, I, I couldn’t imagine myself five years ago saying I’m not gonna be driving in New York City and I could take my Tesla into New York City and, and never touch the wheel until I had to park, you know, when I parked. Yeah, I’ll do it myself.

But, but

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: are you still looking at the road, like, I mean, I’ve heard that every once in a while it does have accidents.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: You gotta look, you, you kind of look at, you gotta look at the road, you know? Otherwise it kind of like, it’s smart, you know, it tells, it knows that you are, you know, if you’re looking at your phone, it knows that you’re looking at your phone, so it gives you like a little beeping sound, you know?

Um,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: wow.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: But, uh. I think this guy man has done so many things that are like life changing, you know, truly life changing. And I think he’s not done yet. So I truly, and he fails, man. I know that he’s failed more time, way more times than what he’s achieved, you know, succeeded. And that’s kind of like our lesson, right?

Like, we can’t be afraid of trying new things and, and, and really having a dream, you know, and try to achieve the dream. If you can dream, and like I said, right, if you can dream it, you can achieve it. And I believe it, man. So, you know, it’s, uh, it’s admirable man that he actually goes for it. And, and, uh, you know, some things happen, some things fail, but the things that he’s done is, is amazing.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: I mean, he is, uh, uh, I think in, in the history of humanity, there’s like very few rare people who have kind of, uh, individually moved humanity forward. Right? And, and he’s, he’s one of those guys. So we are, we’re lucky to, to see him in action. He

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: leaving him. Yeah.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Final question, uh, best business advice that you have ever received or you would give to other entrepreneurs?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Um. Again, man, I think I go back to, you know, think about what is it that you really love about what you do. Um, keep thinking that that’s the reason why you started your business. You know, uh, it’s a, it’s a long road. It’s a very hard road. It’s hard to stay motivated sometimes. And the only thing is, you know, think about, okay, why you guys started this business in the first place and, and keep that goal in mind.

And again, man, just understand that you can’t do it all, you know?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: You can’t do it all. And there’s gotta, you gotta have the support and you gotta have, you know, a spiritual life, I think, to be able to. Put some of your problems in, you know, in somebody else’s hand. You know, I, I do that and say, look, this is your problem now, man.

I’ve done everything I can.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah,

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: yeah. You’d be surprised. You know how true it is that the presence is there, man. You know, like in the worst times when you think you’re done, he put something in front of you like, oh my God, it couldn’t be a better time like this. This is exactly what I needed. And, uh, you know, it’s, uh, including the Shark Tank.

I mean, when Shark Tank happened for me, it was almost, you know, because COVID was going around, business was really bad, and I was like, okay, I’m gonna have to close my business. And the only thing that could save it was a shark tank. And this is exactly what happened. I got a call out of the blues, it’s like, Hey, you want being Shark Tank?

Like, just like that. And I’m like, wow. It’s like, okay, this is a joke, you know? And, um, I can’t, I could tell you so many different stories like that, that’s happened to me. So, um, you know, that’s, it’s, um, yeah, just know that you don’t have control over everything.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Yeah, I, I completely agree. I think, uh, you know.

People think that, you know, hard work and you can, you’d be smart. And you know, I think people think that they can, they control more than they, the, the reality is people, you have very little control. Yeah. And you’re living in a world that is very random and things are happening and, and basically some people are luckier than others.

Like, you know, uh, now you can, you can consider it like, you know, you know, a person of faith, think. And you know, you can think that it’s a divine intervention,

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: right?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Somebody maybe who’s not that faithful it, I think it’s maybe just random. That’s also so, but

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: then again, yeah, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to cut you off, but that’s what, you know, that’s what I also think that that’s what you wrote.

You know, everybody has their own road because again, you know what you think is best for you may not be the best thing, you know, so, you know, maybe it takes you through this. Different path. And that’s okay. You know, as long as you are, you know, enjoying the journey, you know, uh, doing what you can. Uh, and that’s fine.

Whatever you end up is fine because you’ll know that you did everything you can and you did everything to, to your capabilities. And that’s fine with me, man. I’m happy with that.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Well, Dr. Juan, thank you so much. Um, I know I went a little bit over time, but I really appreciate your, uh, the opportunity.

Um, if anybody wants to check out your products, what is the best way to do that?

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Uh, so our website, you know, pnuff.com pnuff.com Uh, we’re sold on Amazon. Uh, we’re sold on Whole Foods Wegmans Shop Drive up here in the Northeast. Um, but our website is, you know, the best place to, to find us.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Uh, well, Dr.

Juan, thank you so much again for the opportunity, for sharing your story, for your lessons learned successes, and I wish you all the very best, uh, in your future birthday.

Juan Salinas of Pnuff Crunch: Thank you, bro. Appreciate it, man.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks: Awesome. Thank you.