Episode
#249 - Expo Pitch Slam Recap with ChiChi Foods
- Podcast
- The Startup CPG Podcast
- Published
- May 19, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1406
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://share.transistor.fm/s/85af5df0
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Summary
In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with Chiara Munzi, co-founder of ChiChi Foods — the winner of Startup CPG's first-ever Expo West Pitch Slam, powered by Advantage FDM Sales. ChiChi makes the world's first chickpea hot cereal: a shelf-stable, high-protein, high-fiber breakfast that cooks just like instant oatmeal but delivers everything oatmeal doesn't — more protein, more fiber, and none of the sugar crash. Chiara shares the full story: how she and co-founder Izzy started mushing chickpeas in their college dorm room after realizing their morning oatmeal was leaving them hungry and crashing an hour later, how they applied to every pitch competition at Expo West instead of paying for a booth, and what it felt like to walk into a room of 200 people and a panel of top retail and distribution judges expecting eight. Daniel and Chiara walk through the entire Pitch Slam experience — from the application strategy to the five-minute pitch, the surprise questions from the judges, the tight deliberations, and the moment ChiChi was named the winner. A huge thank you to Advantage FDM Sales for making this possible by awarding ChiChi Foods their FDM Brand Accelerator Program — a $150,000 prize package designed to help emerging brands build velocity in retail through demos, field support, and brand-building services. They also get into exactly how ChiChi plans to use the prize — primarily for in-store demos as they head into new regional retail launches this summer and fall — and why demos are the single best marketing tool for a product people need to taste to believe. Listen in as they cover: How ChiChi Foods started in a college dorm room and why chickpeas beat oatmeal on every nutritional metric The strategy of applying to every Expo West…