Companies far and wide are making eating nutritiously easy and accessible. Delicious meals that are ready in minutes and are suited for many diets & personal food restrictions.
Every company wants to have a unique angle to sell to the customer, and marketers have convinced us that we need these fancy superfoods and special ingredients to be healthy.
But, many of us forget to ask, are they really doing what they are supposed to do? What if we just returned to eating REAL food, REAL ingredients, from nature, that simple. Bumpin Blends is doing just that.
We were blown away by Lisa Mastela, the founder of Bumpin Blends. Lisa is a registered dietitian, mother of two, and on a mission to help women meet their nutritional needs and nurture their day-to-day symptoms in an easy, fast, and delicious way.
Lisa began making her own smoothie blends to improve her anxiety, bloating, sleep, digestion, energy, and more. She found herself with these incredible smoothies that actually worked, however making them everyday was not necessarily feasible as a mother.
“Our special sauce is that there is no special sauce,” shared Lisa, moving away from the fancy superfoods and focusing on the incredible nutrients plants have to offer. Lisa explained, “if you’re not a dietician or food scientist, you don’t necessarily know what you’re doing with ingredients. You could be hurting yourself or you could be doing something detrimental to your body because you combined something in the wrong way. Or you could be paying so much for something that’s not doing anything for you.”
Bumpin Blends desires to empower their users with the power of real food. Each packet of Bumpin Blends cubes is made especially for you: blended, frozen, and packed in small batches every day. Every smoothie is made from organic, whole-food ingredients that are absolutely, 100% scientifically supported to be safe and beneficial for all women.
Some of the smoothie blends include: Magic Matcha which is incredible for energy, Metamorphosis that is formulated to foster healthy skin and hair, and Bangin’ Banana Split created to boost libido and energy. Bumpin Blends also has smoothies that are blended to increase milk supply, ease heartburn, and aid muscle cramps and nausea.
During our chat with Lisa, she shared an immense amount of wisdom when it comes to funding and investors that any entrepreneur can either relate to or learn from.
Bumpin Blends has been entirely bootstrapped, although Lisa has spent a large amount of time meeting with investors, pitching, and exploring crowdfunding. Through her experience, Lisa came to understand that for her, having an investor would mean giving up a lot of her freedom. Lisa shared, “bringing somebody into the company on such a high level, I want them to be equally passionate about the product and the business. I also want them to bring something to the table other than money, something that I lack.”
Further Lisa and I chatted about finding the right vibration. “You have to have the right vibe. You want someone to be passionate and pumped about the problem. Someone who you know [will] go to sleep at night thinking about your product. I’ve found investors that are ready to write a check but not very passionate about the problem, and I have found investors that are passionate about the product and not ready to write a check.”
Something that we haven’t quite heard a founder be open about is the pressure around raising capital. A lot of founders often can feel defeated if they’re not able to match the funding and do the things competitors are doing. Say your competitor has a billboard ad all over New York City, and you cannot afford to match that… Lisa dove into this…
“If you find yourself worrying about funding, stop and ask yourself … What’s your goal here? Most of the time your competitor is not making money at the end of the day because they’re just spending all the money that’s given to them. I feel really grateful to work for myself, to not stress about meeting the expectations of someone who holds money over me. I am able to make a profit and work at a pace that is very manageable.”
Don’t get us wrong, investors can be incredible assets, but what we want to hit home on is that you shouldn’t feel pressured to accept an investment that doesn’t feel right or rushed. Lisa reminds us, “You’re the founder of your company. You’re the one with the vision of your company. You’re the one that dreamed up this idea. You will absolutely have to see things through and have difficult times. But at the end of the day, you know what you need to do to make everything work out.”
If your aren’t blown away by Lisa already, here is a piece of advice she shared for our audience:
“This is advice for female entrepreneurs specifically, stay true to yourself and stay true to your voice. Stick to your guns with your product and know that you are the expert of your product and your business. It is very easy in this world to either feel like the men in this space aren’t listening to you or taking you seriously. On the flipside, there are a lot of boss girls in the space that men don’t often take seriously either. But don’t feel like you need to justify yourself to fit in with a group. Be authentic to you, because if you’re trying to make your brand something that isn’t authentic to you, it’s not gonna work.”
Bumpin Blends is certainly top on our list to test out. Not only is Lisa making nourishing our bodies easy, but also she is making thoughtful and delicious food that is safe and reliable for all. Let us know what flavor you’re trying @StarterNoise.
Morgan is a student at the University of San Diego majoring in Business Administration and minoring in Entrepreneurship. Not afraid to run a 10k or test out a new product for review, Morgan is our go-to for all things spirituality, health, wellness, and the hottest spots to check out in Denver and San Diego. Also a podcast junkie, Morgan can always recommend a killer listen ranging from the newest data on MDMA research to ways we can begin understanding the microbiome.