Krishna Kaliannan is the founder of Catalina Crunch, a leading brand revolutionizing the snack industry with delicious, protein-packed, low-sugar foods. As a Type 1 Diabetic, Krishna’s personal journey inspired him to create nutritious options that cater to health-conscious consumers. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion for innovation, and commitment to improving the lives of others have driven the success of his business. In this Faces of Entrepreneurship interview, Krishna shares insights into his journey, the challenges he’s faced, and his vision for building a healthier future.

What does “entrepreneurship” mean to you?
Krishna Kaliannan: To me, entrepreneurship is a playbook for improving a small part of the world through business. It’s about recognizing a group of people with a need, figuring out a better/smarter/faster/cheaper way to help those people, bringing in investors to build the solution and the team, then delivering your solution to that group of people to help them out. When your target consumers are better off with your product or service, when your investors are earning a good return on their capital and your team is gainfully employed applying their skills, you’ve made magic happen.

Tell us about your first experience with entrepreneurship.
KK: I was a senior in college. As part of an engineering class, we had to build a product to solve some problem. I got together with a couple of friends and we decided – if we are going to spend all this time building a product, why not try to turn it into a business? So that’s what we tried to do. We thought it was hard to shop for laptops on Amazon because you could only filter by technical features like CPU speed, not things you care about like “Can I play Halo on it without the screen freezing?”. So we built our own ecommerce store which you shopped for laptops on based on how good it was for the things you wanted to do with it. At the time, we were stupid and thought we didn’t have an official business unless we raised money from investors. So we talked to a couple of investors, they didn’t invest, and we went off to our post-college jobs. While we weren’t successful, I was addicted to entrepreneurship. I saw the world differently from that point and knew I could never go back.

What is your company’s origin story? What is the biggest reason you started your business? What did those early days look like and teach you?
KK: I’m a Type 1 Diabetic so it’s very personal. While I grew up eating like most American kids (sugary cereals, carb-bomb chips and the like), I got really interested in nutrition shortly after I was diagnosed.
As a diabetic, you are playing this game throughout the day – you think about how you feel, then you think back to what food you ate and how much insulin you took. You then confirm the whole thing by measuring your blood sugar with a glucometer.

Through this game, you quickly learn what foods do to energy levels, blood sugar and weight. You find eating Protein, Fiber and Good Fats makes life easy by keeping your energy up and your weight/blood sugar steady. On the other hand, large amounts of Sugar and/or Empty Carbs can send your energy levels on a rollercoaster and your weight up. And then exercise makes everything easier.

Knowing this, I looked for products at the grocery store that were high in protein and low in sugar and carbs. Particularly cereal since I would eat out a lot for lunch/dinner. I was dismayed to find that even the “healthy-looking cereals” were typically really high in Sugar/Carbs and had no real Protein to speak of.

So I started baking my own cereal at home, experimenting with various protein powders and alternative flours I bought off Amazon. One day, a friend told me he was sick of eating Eggs for breakfast and was looking for High-Protein breakfast alternatives. I told him about my cereal and gave him some. He sent me $$ on Venmo for it without me asking and that’s when I first realized I could actually sell this stuff. I gave it some thought and then dove in.

What do you wish you knew when you started? Is there anything you would do differently?
KK: I made many small mistakes, but I got the big stuff right and that’s what counts. There are tens of millions of consumers who want to eat food that tastes great and is satisfyingly packed with Protein rather than Sugar/Carbs. We made our Catalina Crunch Cereals, packed them with Protein & Fiber and launched them in delicious flavors like Cinnamon Toast and Chocolate Peanut Butter. Every day consumers write in thanking us for helping them out. That’s what counts.

What does “success” look like for you? We’d love to hear your biggest, boldest dream. What do you think will help you achieve it?
KK: In America, we are fatter than ever. Rates of obesity, which were sub 5% in the early 1900s, are now at 40%. These high rates of obesity are causing an increase in many diseases from diabetes to heart disease. We are spending more and more on healthcare as we get sicker and sicker. Our nation is losing our energy and vitality. It is becoming a growing national security risk and financial burden.
We believe the solution to this crisis is to make foods that taste every bit as good as their sugary/carb-heavy counterparts, but instead are made with more Protein and less Sugar/Carbs. Foods that are satisfying to eat rather than those that leave you craving more.
When the rate of obesity in America is back under 5%, it is mission accomplished for Catalina Crunch.

What is your superpower as an entrepreneur? What is your proudest and darkest moment so far? Share a key high and a key low from your journey if you can.
KK: If I am lucky enough to have any superpower, I think it’s finding great business executives, investors, retailers and vendors and getting them all fired up about Catalina Crunch so they want to be part of what we’re building.

My proudest moments are all about major additions to the Catalina Crunch ecosystem. In the early days, I felt very proud when my long-time mentor Joel Warady joined Catalina Crunch as our President. He made an immediate and game changing impact on our business. Likewise, I felt very proud when Whole Foods Market became the first retailer to carry us nationally and bring our mission to their 10M+ shoppers. More recently, I felt very proud when industry titan Doug Behrens joined Catalina Crunch as our CEO and brought a number of very high-performing folks with him.

What are your personal driving principles, your top values?
KK: Hard work pays off
You are dust and to dust you shall return
Frugality
It is a privilege to run a business upon behalf of shareholders. Management is not owed their capital.
Obsess over Consumers
Own the results
Always be learning
Think bigger

How have your personal principles and values shaped your company’s values and principles?
KK: One thing you’ll notice is Catalina Crunch Cereals come in resealable pouches whereas nearly every other cereal brand puts their cereals into a bag and puts the bag inside a box. More people than I can count have told me they get frustrated with “bag-in-box” cereals because, once you take the bag out of the box, it’s hard to get the bag back into the box. And when you do get the bag in and fold it over, your cereal can go stale quickly if you don’t do it right. So our consumers tell us they love our resealable pouches (like Ziploc bags for cereal) and many ask us why Catalina Crunch is the only cereal brand to do this.

When I started Catalina, I was so insistent on putting the cereal in a pouch that we opened our own bakery to make it happen because no one else could do it. I like to think there aren’t many companies who obsess over their consumers so much that they are willing to open a new plant just to make that product experience improvement.

What role does mentorship play in your world (as a mentor or mentee)? Tell us about what makes mentorship valuable to you and your business.
KK: I lucked into an excellent mentor when Catalina Crunch was little more than a plan on a piece of paper and some internet sales. His name is Joel Warady and Catalina Crunch wouldn’t be what it is today without him. In the early days, the main thing he helped with actually was emotional support. We had this super small bakery in Indianapolis. I’d manage production during the day, then do sales/marketing/ordering at night. I’d sleep on a cot I had in the front office. I didn’t know anyone in Indy, I didn’t have a car and I did nothing but work 7 days a week. It was brutal. Joel would remind me to shower at the local gym and encourage me to keep on going.
Joel helped me see the opportunity in selling into retail (rather than just DTC). As a CPG veteran, he also helped a lot with speed. I was able to avoid a lot of the mistakes he made early in his career and “stand on his shoulders” so to speak. Later, Joel joined Catalina Crunch as our first President and led the business through an explosive 10x growth phase past $100M annually through the register.

Can you share some insights into the market or industry you operate in? How have you navigated challenges and changes in the market landscape?
KK: The U.S. healthy snacks market, valued at $21B in 2023, is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2024 to 2030 (Grand View Research). Consumers are increasingly looking for snacks that are satisfying to eat and help them live a healthier life. This explosive trend has created numerous opportunities for innovation. When we started, our focus was on cereal. However, as consumer needs evolved, our consumers were demanding from us low-sugar and protein-packed options across many different food formats and consumption occasions. This led us to launch into Snack Mix, Cookies and now Chocolate.

Many entrepreneurs continue to perfect their daily routines to support their work and greater vision; would you mind sharing your morning routine or a regular ritual that grounds your work each day?
KK: Sure. I wake up at 6:45AM in the morning and immediately take a shower while brushing my teeth. Then I eat breakfast, which is usually Catalina Crunch Cinnamon Toast Cereal with Almond Milk or Greek Yogurt. I then spend 5-10 mins reading news online, typically NY Times and Fox News to try to get multiple perspectives. Then I read ~30-45 mins of whatever book I’m reading (currently its Taking People With You). Then I start work at 8AM. My wife and I recently had our first daughter – she derails my morning plans occasionally nowadays. It’s a welcome change!

How do you manage the work-life balance as an entrepreneur? What strategies have you found effective in maintaining your well-being?
KK: My work gives my life meaning and gives me energy. Without work, I’d feel useless and bored. I don’t like the idea of a “work-life balance” because it implies a trade-off between work and life which does not exist for me. Work fuels life and life fuels work.

Where do you turn for inspiration?
KK: Kobe Bryant

Building and sustaining a business often involves overcoming various challenges. Can you share a specific moment where your entrepreneurial resilience was tested, and how did you navigate through it to ensure the sustainability of your business? What lessons did you learn from that experience?
KK: The first time we were tested was about 6-months after we’d launched our Catalina Crunch Dark Chocolate Cereal. We had a co-manufacturer who decided to stop working with us and without this company, we couldn’t get any product to market. We were out of stock at catalinacrunch.com and our consumers were getting frustrated with the wait. We needed a replacement manufacturer but no one I called could do what these guys could. When I realized that, I thought for the first and only time about shutting down the business. While we couldn’t find a co-man to do what we needed, I was thinking about a way we could do it ourselves. It was a risky move because the way I thought we could do it was not “how it was done in the food industry”. That said, I rented out a small bakery, gave it a try, and it worked! We were back up and running and no longer dependent on this other co-manufacturer for product.

This was a classic case of “when there’s a will, there’s a way”.

Do you have a favorite quote, mantra, or words of wisdom to get through the tough days?
KK: “Just keep moving forward”

What is a problem that keeps you up at night?
KK: I believe Catalina Crunch has done an excellent job providing delicious and protein/fiber-rich, satisfying foods to nutritionally savvy consumers. The thing is, there is a large percentage of Americans (say 60%) that don’t pay any mind to nutrition at all. The research shows they care only about price and taste. They buy the same big brands they’ve been buying for decades. How do we bring these folks along with us in the journey to make our country healthier?

How do you think about helping others through your work?
KK: For Catalina Crunch, it’s simple. When someone eats one of our foods, whether it be our cereals, snack mixes, cookies or chocolate bars, they are making an investment in their own body and life. They are trading the Sugary, Carb-Bomb junk food for a satisfying, delicious food that is packed with Protein/Fiber. I know from the thousands of consumers who’ve written into us that this way of eating helps them in countless ways. For some, it’s feeling satisfied and fulfilled so they aren’t constantly a slave to cravings. For others, it’s the energy they get from the food and how that helps get them out the door training for their marathon, triathlon, etc. We have countless examples.

What advice do you have for fellow (and aspiring) entrepreneurs building and leading teams?
KK: Building and leading teams is challenging, and it’s particularly difficult if you start a company in an industry you previously didn’t work in. I suggest becoming a student of the subject and finding yourself a great mentor who has done it before.

What kind of an entrepreneur do you want to be known as – as in, what do you want your legacy to be?
KK: I want my legacy to be helping reduce rates of obesity in America. I hope to play a part in building a more energetic, healthy and vivacious country.

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