Life-Changers: Soulmuch Inspiration

While working in a San Diego restaurant, Reyanne Mustafa and Kristian Krugman witnessed an overwhelming amount of food waste being discarded at the end of each day. Most notably was the leftover cooked rice and quinoa that had not had the chance to get to hungry customers. As forward-thinking, sustainability-minded individuals, this did not sit right with them and they wanted to find a solution to the wastage.

Reyanne and Kristian did not set out to become entrepreneurs - or even intrapreneurs - all they wanted was to stop the unnecessary discarding of perfectly good food into landfill.

Their first solution was to package up the leftover rice and take it it, but soon realised it was not a sustainable option, nor was it safe or entirely legal in San Diego. Their next idea was to create a protein powder.

“This ‘aha moment’ came when I was walking down the protein aisle

at Sprouts and picked up a protein powder that I was interested in buying. The first ingredient on the package was dehydrated rice, and the second ingredient was dehydrated quinoa. I thought, my gosh, this is the stuff we are downtown to people who needed

throwing away every single day,” Reyanne said.

Unfortunately, this idea didn’t progress, as they quickly discovered a saturated market and that people were loyal to their tried-and-trusted brands.

With Reyanne’s background in food science and nutrition, she knew

there had to be something new and exciting they could create, but it was Reyanne’s mother who came up with the idea that would eventually stick – cookies. The two of them were driving back from a big food expo called Expo West that showcases the latest in food innovations and ideas.

“Driving back home, I started brainstorming, maybe I could make a veggie patty out of the brown rice, or dog treats, chips or it’s different, otherwise we would likely get lost in the sea of protein bars all on the market,” Reyanne said.

From there, Reyanne and Kristian started experimenting with their product idea, finishing their shift at the restaurant and staying back to throw the rice and other potential ingredients in a mixer to see what happened. The first (of many) batches were an abysmal failure, and the pair became close to

something similar. But then mum goes ‘I got it’ and slaps me on the thigh - ‘how do you make food waste sexy? Cookies, everyone loves cookies!’. Honestly, I wasn’t sure at that stage!”

So, Reyanne and Kristian started their market research to see what giving up. The turning point came when they decided to switch from trying to make something new and instead go back to basics, then work out how to incorporate the brown rice into a traditional cookie recipe – and it worked.

“We made a regular chocolate

people wanted and work out whether cookies were a viable chip cookie and those tasted really good, so then we tried to

option. They conducted hundreds see what we could sub out or sub

of customer surveys and interviews in to add the rice. We figured out

and discovered that people wanted that we needed to dry the rice

a fast, convenient snack such as a bar or biscuit.

“The reason we chose a cookie rather than a protein bar was because playing with cookies is so much more fun, and the marketing is a lot more enticing -

and then turn it into flour, rather than just making a cookie and inserting cooked rice into it. It was such a slight change, but that really was a pivotal moment in the early stages,” Reyanne said. They had found a solution for the mass amounts of food waste leaving the

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restaurant’s kitchen each night, so they took their plan to management. It seemed like a no-brainer to Reyanne and Kristian, but their idea of drying the leftover rice and turning it into flour to be repurposed fell flat with management. They were all set to pitch them the cookie idea too, but Reyanne’s mother encouraged them to be bold and take

ownership of their hard work and create a business of their own. They took the ‘leap of faith’, and SOULMUCH became a reality.

“Creating a company was actually the last thing that we wanted to do. We had gone to our management several times and told them; ‘look, why don’t you guys do

something with this rice? You are already purchasing 50 pounds of brown rice and brown rice flour every single week, why don’t you just take the rice you are throwing away and repurpose it?’” Reyanne said.

“We were not being heard and it was really frustrating, but I think that that is what inspired us. We

thought, okay, if you’re not going to hear us, you’re going to hear us eventually when we make our own company.”

While they already had the passion and the culinary skills to make their dream a reality, business was another beast altogether. They joined a business incubator on the local

university’s campus which helped them create a business framework that could take their idea to a full-blown enterprise. This taught them everything from business framework to marketing and logo creation, taxes and accounting.

“They walked us through the whole process and without that, we would have been extremely overwhelmed and not have known where to start,” Reyanne said.

When it comes to advice for other would-be entrepreneurs moving from the comforts of someone else’s business to contemplating their own, finding a similar support scheme, as they did, is Reyanne’s first piece of advice. This could be through the local, small business administration, an online community, or something set up through a private corporate system. Finding your support group and your cheerleaders is very important, especially in the early stages as you evolve your idea into something workable and, eventually, profitable.

Her other piece of advice is to find a partner that helps push you in the right direction.

“There are two types of people in the entrepreneur world; the ringleaders or executors, then there’s the idea monkeys or visionaries. You need both to make something work because ideas are just ideas until you make them happen,” she said.

“Without Krissy, my co-founder who is the executor, I would still be sitting on the idea of trying to figure out something to do with this rice and not know how to actually start.”

Reyanne’s third piece of advice is just to take that leap of faith and do it! As she puts it, fall in love with your problem, not your solution. From here, start conducting your research on what people want and how you can solve the problem in a useful and innovative way.

Now that their kitchen is thriving, Reyanne and Kristian have set themselves a new goal – to rescue 1 million pounds of food in the next five years. They can’t do it alone, so will be working hard to inspire others to join the movement and make a lasting impact. They have become much more than a cookie company; they are a source of education, inspiration and power.

“It is our goal that every bite you take out of our cookie, you take the opportunity to reflect and be inspired, knowing that your purchasing habits have so much power and you really can shape the world you live in,” Reyanne said.

“And that is what’s so beautiful about entrepreneurship, that being able to create that impact in every single sale that you do.”

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