In this founder feature, host Caitlin Bricker sits down with Sheena Hamby, founder of Mac Squares, baked mac and cheese frozen into squares, made with real aged cheddar cheese straight from the block, fresh milk, eggs, and spices, with zero cheese powder. Needing a fast comfort food that wasn't messy, Sheena created Mac Squares in a hospital kitchen while her daughter Nova was going through chemotherapy. Nurses and doctors started stopping by asking what she was cooking. Her family ate them, her kids ate them, cold or hot, and customers are now hiding the salmon SKU in their own deep freezers.
Caitlin and Sheena dig into how frozen food is really just time travel, preserving the product at the exact moment it was made, Sheena's journey from hospital kitchen to her first retailer at Swamp Rabbit Cafe (which came from a Startup CPG event), her experience at the Fancy Food Show in New York, and the literal street sign that changed everything for her at a Startup CPG grocery run in Denver.
Listen in as they discuss:
- How the idea for Mac Squares came from needing something fast and mess-free during her daughter's chemo treatment
- Cooking from scratch in a hospital kitchen after learning her daughter was allergic to dairy
- The moment her daughter's oncologist tried Mac Squares during a Super Bowl watch and asked for the whole tray
- The real ingredients behind Mac Squares: block cheddar, fresh milk and eggs, and less than 1% sodium
- Building out five SKUs, including truffle, spinach, miso, salmon, and a dairy-free version made with oat milk
- How the D2C pre-order model, shipping twice a month, allows Sheena to control logistics and production
- Discovering Startup CPG through a chance conversation, and applying to the Denver grocery run on a whim
- The emotional Denver show: grieving her father, a street sign that felt like a sign, and pushing through anyway
- Landing Swamp Rabbit Cafe as her first grocery store account
- Why she reframes frozen food as "time travel," preserving a dish at the exact moment it was made
Episode Links:
- Sheena Hamby - Founder, Mac Squares LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/sheenahamby
- Website: https://www.smacsquares.com/
- Instagram: @macsquares
Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.
Show Links:
- Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to "Transcript" at the top)
- Join the Startup CPG Slack community (35K+ members and growing!)
- Follow @startupcpg
- Visit host Caitlin's LinkedIn
- Questions or comments about the episode? Email podcast@startupcpg.com
- Episode music by Super Fantastics
