Why we invested in Kreatures of Habit — your new healthy breakfast routine
You are what you eat
If you’ve ever had the pleasure to meet, listen to or just watch Michael Chernow in action, you will quickly feel inspired to do something. In our case, it was to invest in him and his new lifestyle CPG DTC startup Kreatures of Habit.
Check ou the amazing launch video that explains a lot more https://www.instagram.com/p/CTDExrsJpDR/
Who is Micheal Chernow?
Restauranteur, influencer, bodybuilder, and an amazing father/husband. We were introduced through a mutual friend who is a wellness expert.
We’ve been fortunate to get to know him over the last year and a half prior to the pandemic when he had a slightly different concept you can read more about below. But his unbridled optimism kept him going, pivoting and righting course in order to do all of this over the last year, which is nothing short of amazing.
From the recent Techcrunch article, you can learn a lot about his background and the genesis of the company concept:
The idea for Kreatures of Habit stemmed from Chernow’s own life, celebrating 17 years of sobriety.
He said he adopted positive habits that enabled him to replace alcohol with nutrition and fitness. It is the latest venture for Chermow, who also founded The Meatball Shop and Seamore’s in New York. The brand originally started out as a café concept, but Chermow pivoted to the consumer goods space when the global pandemic hit.
“I had put a plan together in 2019, was away for a few weeks when the news of COVID hit,” he told TechCrunch. “I called up my investors and said ‘I am not going to invest in this and neither should you. I’m going to reassess and get back to you.’ However, through my journey of scaling restaurants, I didn’t love doing it because I went from being a culture entrepreneur to a project manager. It was a far cry from connecting to human beings around a brand.” He started with breakfast — his favorite meal of the day — and began looking at his sustenance of choice: oatmeal, protein and vitamins. Now he is targeting the $3.3 billion pre-packed oats market with his first product, a direct-to-consumer instant oatmeal called The PrOATagonist.
Why Kreatures of Habit?
How many of you grew up eating instant oatmeal that was basically full of sugar? **raises hand** We didn’t really know any better growing up…
Tasted relatively good but really wasn’t that good for you like most things that we grew up with and still eat today. I personally believe sugar is one of the worst things for you and limiting its intake is one of the best things you can do health-wise.
Kreatures of Habit is a plant-based, gluten and allergen-free meal that has all of Michael’s three favorite breakfast go-tos — oats, protein and vitamins, plus minerals and Omega-3 fatty acids. Michael spent the last year testing the formulas, which comes in three flavors, including chocolate, blueberry-banana and vanilla.
He also brought on former RX Bar CMO Victor Lee to lead the brand’s go-to-market strategy. And I have to say he had one of the best, most comprehensive GTM strategies I’ve seen, with the help of his friends/investors like Gary Vaynerchuk and many others.
The Oat market is huge!
Most of the headlines are around oat alt milk drink supplements but people still eat lots of whole oats as well. And the market is growing fast!
I honestly used to only have coffee and a protein bar for breakfast, if I ate anything at all. Kind of like my own intermittent fast of sorts, though not really. After talking with Michael, I realized 1) The protein bar I was eating was basically a glorified candy bar 2) I need to eat breakfast to start my day 3) I was missing many vitamins from my diet
The PrOATagonist comes in a box of seven for $34, and can be obtained via a monthly subscription of $33.
