We were lucky to catch up with Tyler Phillips recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tyler, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One thing we always find fascinating is how differently entrepreneurs think about revenue growth and cost reductions – both can be powerful ways to improve profitability. What do you spend more of your time and energy on?

I would say that I spend more of my time focused around efficiently growing revenue. By this I mean growing the business in a profitable manner.

What I find is that by doing this there are certain economies of scale + efficiencies which open up to you that you otherwise would not have been able to uncover if you were so focused on cutting costs initially. I have also found it easier to cut costs after pushing on efficient growth and trimming back, as opposed to not have that many expenses to begin with and constantly try to get things even cheaper.

One specific cost that exemplifies this point of view is packaging costs. For my very first packages, I was applying a stickered label to packaging I was ordering on Amazon. Once you accounted for the time it took to apply the labels, the total cost of each packaging would be around $1.
Next, by growing the sales profitably and saving money I was able to invest in our first printed packaging run. The costs reduced by over 50% to around .44/package. However, this is still astronomically high when you think of the competition you are up against.
Now, we are large enough as a business and have access to 0% APR financing which allows the business to transition into a copacking facility where we will package using flowwrap technology. This allows the packs to be made much faster, while also reducing the packaging costs to a few cents per package. None of this would have been possible if we hadn’t focused energy on growing the business to justify making these transitions.

That’s just one example, but I hope it paints a picture for what’s possible as your business drives growth first and then looks back on how to reduce costs.

Tyler, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hey readers,

My name is Tyler Phillips and I am the founder @ Hummii Snacks. We are on a mission to create “A Healthy + Yummii Snack Universe” by reimagining nostalgic snack + candy classics.

Our first product is POINTS!, a lower sugar take on M&Ms. We set ourselves apart from others partly by turning around the marketing tactics of junk food & candy companies and using them to promote these healthier alternatives. For example, the POINTS! mascots are edgier then your average cartoon & are engaging in a battle against Sugar Corp for the “Hummiiverse” aka Hummii Snack Universe.

I’ve been inspired by a lot of the anti-marketing strategies of disruptors like Liquid Death and Oatly to create a memorable, buzz worthy experience that’s fun for customers to jump into.

I am most proud of the creative foundation we have as a brand, in addition to the encouragement of the community to keep pushing the boundaries of our absurdity as a snack brand…
For example; we’ve had other suggest and begin working on planting the seeds for these mascots to venture off into other forms of media/culture and appear in comedic TV series’, streetwear clothing, & even their own video game.

It’s exciting to think of the legacy this may have as we empower others to use these mascots as a vehicle to subliminally educate on the dangers of artificial ingredients/sugary products in hilarious ways.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

I pulled together a mix of initial capital to start the business:

1. Alternative Investments ~ I was fortunate/lucky to have invested early into Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies in 2017. This helped me have an initial amount of money to launch the brand by 2020.

2. Crowdfunding ~ We looked to the community to help fundraise and essentially gain preorders for our products. This helped validate the concept and get the R&D process started.

3. Selling off personal items ~ There are definitely sacrifices you’ll have to make as a founder. My Jeep Wrangler was one of them, as I sold that to continue funding the business. Now it gives me extra motivation when I need it, as I envision one day buying it back and enjoying some adventuring in it once again :)

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Truly listening to your existing customers and asking deep questions.

We use a platform called KnoCommerce to add a post-purchase survey to our Shopify store that allows us to ask 15ish questions to every customer after purchase.
Additionally, I am always emailing customers, replying to Facebook comments, DMing, and setting up calls to learn more about what they love and don’t love about the product.
In the first year on the market with POINTS! I also likely spent close to 400 hours sampling myself in various stores/events and interacting.

When you combine all of these and actually have your guard down to understand (rather than argue/convince) there’s a lot to learn & it builds a greater connection with these people. They then become evangelists for the brand and help grow the business organically.

Lastly, this gives you an incredible amount of insight on what products/features your community would want to see next and support you with.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hummii.com/pages/points-lp-1
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hummii_yummy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HummiiYummy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-phillips-468666b2/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/hummii_snacks
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@HummiiSnacks