We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alexander Duong a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alexander, thanks for joining us today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?

We make our crackers with the most sustainable, tasty, inclusive ingredients possible.

One of the unexpected problems we faced in our business is the Ukraine-Russian War. Ukraine produces the majority of the world’s commercially available sunflower seeds and we used those very seeds for our sunflower oil. Upon the start of the war, I had some conversations with our vendors and partners to confirm our supply chain and we were told don’t worry.

Unfortunately the war has continued far longer than expected and a few months later everyone was scrambling to solidify their oil supply chains. Given that oil is an integral part of our formulation I was very nervous but had faith that my partners would be able to locate the oil we needed. A few weeks later, we were able to secure a supply of domestically produced and processed oil that met our standard.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Alex Duong and I was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. My parents are Chinese, born in Vietnam, and came to the US in the late 70’s. I have been working in food for over a decade now and started my journey on the farm. I worked on farms in Italy, France and Spain in college in lieu of doing an internship. Upon returning to the States, I worked for a nonprofit teaching gardening to children K-5. My first job in food retail was at Whole Foods in 2013, before I was recruited to be a founding employee at Thrive Market.
I left Thrive Market 6 years ago, determined to create and launch my own food brand. I knew I wanted to round out my experience a bit more so while I was formulating and developing our products, I helped launch a convenience store (The Goods Mart), worked in corporate food service (Ohmygreen) and launched a D2C business.

After a few years of hard work, I launched Fair & Square to customers in March 2023. Fair & Square makes gut friendly crackers using inclusive formulations that won’t hurt you or your loved one’s tummy. We believe deeply that snacking is better when you can share a tasty treat with your loved ones. The four pillars of the brand are inclusive formulations (allergen friendly), gut health centric (our prebiotic flours support gut health), sustainable ingredients (using ingredients that use less resources, such as bananas), and scalable supply chain (ingredients that can feed the world at scale).

To start, we have launched two flavors: Cheddar Cheeze and Sea Salt. Our Cheeze flavor is plant based, gluten free, gut friendly and school friendly – a healthier and delicious take on everyone’s favorite childhood cheese snack: Cheezits. Our second flavor is Sea Salt, which has all the attributes of our Cheeze, with a more neutral flavor, perfect for dipping or your favorite charcuterie board.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the idea that everything needs to be logical. Growing up in an immigrant family, we were taught to navigate life logically. This has served me well throughout my life until I started my own business. The truth is, in entrepreneurship, much like in life, you really need to find room for alchemy, the idea that things can magically transform to be greater than the sum of the individual components. The best example of this is how I have pursued and stuck to my instinct in spite of what my peers were doing all around me.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

We do not manufacture our product. However I did get started with my product by learning how to make it myself, to the point where my formulation is actually the initial formulation used for our first commercialized version of our product. To find the right partner, I attended a variety of manufacturer trade shows and visited every booth that manufactured crackers. I learned along the way that you have to trust your copacker but maintain your instinct. I have a deep relationship and respect with my copacker and always listen when they have advice because after all, they do this everyday!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.itsfairandsquare.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsfairandsquare/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/itsfairandsquare
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/itsfairandsquare/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itsfairandsquare
• Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/FairSquare/page/D254443D-188A-4A34-8094-D1BEC5635D5F?ref_=ast_bln

Image Credits
Katrin Björk (@katrinbjork on Instagram)