Walk into any supermarket, and you’ll see an aisle full of cereals – so many that it’s hard to choose. So why would you need one more? Because most cereal is the nutritional equivalent of junk food. Margaret Wishingrad, CEO and co-founder of Three Wishes Cereal, wants to help change that. She joins Startup Savants to discuss how her company is elevating this humble breakfast food with a high-protein, low-sugar, gluten- and grain-free nutrition powerhouse.
- Startup Savants is a business podcast that tells the stories behind up-and-coming startups.
- Margaret Wishingrad, CEO and co-founder of Three Wishes Cereal, joins Startup Savants to discuss her startup.
- Three Wishes Cereal offers breakfast food that’s far more nutritious than most cereal but still tastes great.
In Search of Healthier Cereal
Margaret’s idea for Three Wishes Cereal sprang from her desire to feed her child healthier breakfasts and being disappointed with the existing options, particularly when it came to cereal. “There were no healthy cereals,” she said during her interview with Startup Savants. “Cereal was really just dessert: a lot of sugar, no real nutrition.”
Although Margaret wanted to start a truly healthy cereal brand, she didn’t have any experience with commercial recipe development or food production. What she did have was culinary creativity. “I’ve always played around with ingredients that weren’t super conventional,” she said during her interview. “But the actual creation and commercialization of cereal … couldn’t be further from that.”
As a result, once she and her husband committed to starting a cereal company, they needed expert help. “Creating cereal is not a commercial kitchen process where you have a recipe, you bring it, and you put it in a KitchenAid,” she said. “It’s extremely, extremely technical.” Cereal is also produced at scale, so testing small batches isn’t sufficient.
To meet these and other challenges, the company hired a food scientist and began creating, testing, and piloting different formulas at various production facilities. This process took two years and cost almost $200,000. But eventually, their perseverance paid off. “There were so many ups and downs … to get to the final product,” Margaret said. “But that’s entrepreneurship. You have to be prepared for those roller coasters.”
A Household Brand
Margaret’s goal for the company is nothing less than to become a household brand. “I have my name on this, so I would hope that it has some wonderful sticking power and stays around for a very long time,” she said. Among other things, this will require realistic growth and fundraising goals. “I just want to continue making really great decisions and steering this brand [so] it continues to grow in a really smart way,” she said. “And for me, that’s channel strategy and just all these other experiences and flavors and innovation.”
Even though the road has been difficult, Margaret feels like she’s in a good place. “I love what I do so much,” she said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. Even on the days that I wake up at 2:00 in the morning for no reason but to remind myself to do something. It’s my whole life.”
Startup Savants Podcast
The Startup Savants podcast is a business podcast created by The Really Useful Information Company (TRUiC). Listeners can hear the stories behind startups, as told by founders that are growing their companies.
Ethan, an entrepreneur, and Annaka, a branding expert, host the Startup Savants podcast. They bring disparate skills and life experiences to their interviews, providing listeners with important business insights and a holistic perspective on the startup ecosystem.
Hear from a variety of real startup founders from around the globe and with varying backgrounds, making their startup idea a reality. Learn from experts sharing their industry knowledge on venture capital, securing funding, and more on the Startup Savants podcast.
Final Thoughts
In her interview with Startup Savants, Margaret Wishingrad shares the insights she has gleaned from founding and running her startup, Three Wishes Cereal. Learn how she started a company in a very technical area with no prior expertise and hopes to turn it into a household brand.
You can find the Startup Savants podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
