Marketing moringa with Kuli Kuli Foods

Kuli Kuli moringa product line has a form factor for every taste and eating requirement

Moringa is, by all accounts, a miracle plant. According to Wikipedia, its seed pods are a popular ingredient in south Asian soups and curries. Its leaves can be cooked and eaten like spinach, and dried leaf powder can be used as a hand cleanser when soap is unavailable. Its seeds are eaten as snacks in some cultures, and the seed cake can be used to filter water. In the U.S. moringa’s most visible use is as a dried superfood, which is why I found myself talking with Lisa Curtis, CEO of Kuli Kuli Foods, at the recent Winter Fancy Food Show.

Powder made from the leaves of moringa oleifera offers “more Vitamin C, per gram, than oranges, more calcium than milk, and more potassium than bananas,” according to this article in Fast Company. Kuli Kuli’s website compares it to kale, probably the most-familiar green nutrition add-in, and reports it has twice the protein, four times the calcium and six times the iron. A downloadable brochure makes the case for moringa as a potential benefit for diabetes prevention, cardiovascular health and lactation enhancement and more. Having used it to make smoothies, I will add it doesn’t taste at all unpleasant though it’s a good idea to wash your blender before the excess dries out.

Lisa Curtis, Kuli Kuli founder and CEO

Lisa Curtis was introduced to moringa as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, where local people offered it to her because she felt low-energy attempting to adapt to local foods on her vegetarian diet. “Kuli kuli” is the preferred form of ingestion, an energy snack mixing the greens with peanuts. She went on to found and grow her company first with the help of crowdfunding campaigns on Indiegogo (where she got $22,000 in pledges the first day) and AgFunder, which differs from Kickstarter in that funders are willing to put in at least $15,000. She also made an alliance with (and received backing from) Whole Foods and has since expanded to other stores with a total of 7,000 retail outlets in the U.S.

More recently, Kuli Kuli has received $4.25 million in Series A funding from Kellogg’s venture capital arm, and declared itself as a B Lab company which means a commitment to help its stakeholders—in this case the women in West Africa who grow and harvest the leaves. She’s also been recognized as a “30 under 30” social entrepreneur by Forbes, and was set to receive a Leadership Award at the Fancy Food Show the night I met her.

Why all these business details on a food blog? Because over the years I have seen countless underfunded gourmet food startups who come to the Fancy Food Show with a great concept and are never heard from again. They come hoping to find a distributor, which is possible but risky, or to make their case to the retail buyers which is such a long shot as to be unrealistic. Kuli Kuli, in contrast, is a company that is doing it right. If you’re a food startup, you can learn a lot of best practices just by poking around their website. Health benefits and company history are spelled out and accessible, and there are some terrific recipes. Also, look at how many form factors are available to buy their product: powder, bars, shots, smoothie mixes. There’s something for everybody so “I don’t know how I would eat this” is no long a legitimate objection. I stopped by my local health food store this morning and while there were half a dozen moringa brands, Kuli Kuli was the only one that offered a sampler package at low cost.

And then there’s the email I received from Julie Curtis, Kuli Kuli’s PR person, prior to the show, which I was the reason I agreed to the interview to begin with. She had taken the trouble to read my blog, and thought I might be interested because of a recent article on “good food that both makes you feel good and provides a platform for social good”. (The article in question was my recipe for Chili Crisp Ice Cream so we’re stretching it a bit, but okay.) PR folks, take note.