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

Kyle , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I have been smoking foods for many years on the Big Green Egg. During the pandemic I would experiment with smoking and or cooking different foods. I was smoking salsas, citrus wheels for cocktails, and nuts. In December 2021, I started honed in on some recipes with smoking nuts. The idea was to share them to friends and family for the holidays. At several friends and family holiday parties; people told me I could sell them. I didn’t believe it initially, but after more consideration I thought I should try it. Overall, I think I got lucky because the couple of batches were a success. With the support of my friends and family the vision of Fun Smoked Snacks was established.

Kyle , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am someone who loves to cook, be around people, host meals, share experiences with others, and be outside. When hosting meals, I strive to share culinary creations with others. It brings me joy in bringing people together around food and nature. My supportive and loving wife is a great partner for my passion in sharing culinary experiences. I hope in the years to come my two children share my same passion of sharing food with others. The brand, Fun Smoked Snacks was born to share snacks with friends, family, and people everywhere.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In the early days of Fun Smoked Snacks I was only thinking about aesthetics of my product, not scalability. That said, I opted in for small glass jars to store my smoked nuts. This created the look I was going for however did not allow me to grow at the rate I planned to grow at. I faced challenges shipping, selling at a higher price, and keeping the quantity small. It was a goal of mine to get into a local butcher shop that sells excellent meats and high quality products. They told me with a glass jar, it wouldn’t be a good fit for their brand.

After a couple of orders and the comment from the local butcher shop, something had to change. I improved my packaging by using a Kraft paper bag with a clear window, and a ziplock sealer. Making this switch immediately allowed me to ship for way less, provide more of the tasty treats, and lower my margins.

Changing the packaging was the best decision the business made. Since this switch in April 2022, our products are now in 2 local butcher shops and shipping nationwide.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

Yes, I sell my products on my website, www.funsmokedsnacks.com and then advertise on my Instagram, FunSmokedSnacks. Orders come in through word of mouth and when they see them in other retailers as well.

Pros of having E-commerce:
– You can have a personally designed website for your products to be highlighted and sold
– You can control the narrative of your story
– Online retail “E-commerce” is very easy to setup
– Social Media marketing your brad is very easy although time consuming
– You can design it, publish it, and “set it & forget it”

Cons of having E-commerce:
– You need to find the right website hosting partner that works for your business
– I chose GoDaddy because I didn’t know much about website hosting/design and I am limited on my website design.
– You have to keep up with trends, shipping rates, design, etc.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://funsmokedsnacks.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/funsmokedsnacks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087573923472
• Other: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/funsmokedsnacks