Founder Spotlight: Peter Barrick (Rivalz)
Meet Peter Barrick:
Rivalz is a food tech company powered by AI and a fast-growing maker of nutrient-dense foods without compromise that is changing the snacking game by offering healthier versions of those salty snacks you hate to love, all while leaving you feeling more satisfied. The company’s fully integrated AI model has allowed Rivalz to exponentially accelerate product design, leading to a revolutionary breakthrough—high-protein, high-fiber, low carb snacks, which are highly differentiated in the category where cheap carbohydrates and empty calories are pervasive.
Location:
Davis, California, USA
When did you launch the business?
May 15, 2023
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Startup Stage:
Rivalz just landed $6.1M in seed funding
What led you to where you are today?
Our fully integrated use of AI has allowed Rivalz to exponentially accelerate product design and development and create a Smart Snack-compliant product—the national nutrition standard for food and beverages sold in schools—in record time. This leaves us hopeful to grow distribution and also enter into new categories beyond snacking in the future.
What do you wish you knew before embarking on your entrepreneurial journey?
This is a difficult time for fundraising, but an excellent time to start a business. This fundraising environment is unlike the pre-Covid years. Investors are demanding more from companies—disciplined spending, great margins, compelling stories, highly differentiated products, proof of concept, and validation. Despite the tightening financial markets, Rivalz has risen to the challenge and has successfully raised the Angel and Seed Rounds. It is a result of the team’s execution and their incredible perseverance. We are now in a position to take advantage of opportunities as the overall market improves over the next two years.
What is the most difficult decision you've had to make regarding your business so far?
Early on at Rivalz, we were faced with the decision of what form to create as a line extension to our Veggie Crunch, which is our first-generation product. We were fortunate we had an exceptional R&D Team and technology platform that offered us flexibility and choice, but with choice, comes difficult decisions. While we could have created several other extruded snacks like puffs or chips that might have been easier or cheaper, we ultimately chose to create the Rivalz Stuffed Snack as it delivered the most disruptive and robust flavor experience.
What can you help the VEGPRENEUR community with?
We’re on a mission to redefine the snacking category with next-level, nutrient-dense foods that offer optimal taste and texture while leaving you satisfied. Rivalz Stuffed Snacks are gluten-free, vegan, low glycemic, non-GMO certified, and certified Kosher, as well as contain seven essential vitamins and minerals that are perfect for on-the-go snacking.
How can the VEGPRENEUR community help you?
We would love VEGPRENEUR to share our news, offer us feedback from the community, and connect us with your events, and meetups with other entrepreneurs, investors, and media.
Fun fact about you:
I draw inspiration from my time as a Marine Officer in lesser-developed countries worldwide where food insecurity was rampant, which has fueled my desire to help tackle the hardest problems facing food categories and make high-quality, nutritious snacks that can make a real impact.
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