As a child, Daniel Berg started reading the labels on packaged foods and pestering adults with questions. He couldn’t understand why products marketed as healthy were filled with junk. After failing to find a tasty, functional dessert, Dan decided to take things into his own hands. Literally! He started rolling out Berg Bites for friends and family. Dan kept getting more and more requests for these heart-healthy dessert bites and has been growing ever since.
Learn more about how Daniel is working to bring clean, functional products to the dessert category:
Berg Bite Founder Daniel Berg
Why did you start Berg Bites?
I started Berg Bites because I want to help consumers understand what they’re eating and give them healthy products that are fun, exciting, nutritious, and delicious!
What do you like about food? What drew you to the food industry?
Who doesn’t love to eat? It is the most important thing we do every day and something we can never take for granted. I want people to begin to love eating healthier, cleaner more transparent packaged goods.
What is your biggest business accomplishment to date?
Our biggest accomplishment to date is selling Berg Bites to the New Orleans Pelicans. This is a truly a dream to be able to supply an NBA organization with our bites!
What is a piece of advice you wish you’d been given before starting? If you had to start all over, would you do it again? What would you do differently?
I would certainly do it all over again. I don’t think I would have done anything differently, because I started with the mindset that I will learn as I go and that is exactly how it has gone so far. I am learning more and more every day about the industry and how to conduct business as a whole.
How did you get into your first store? Any tips?
My first store was Springbone Kitchen in New York City. This was such a cool feeling to see my products on a shelf and it was a dream come true. The tips I would give someone who is going to pitch their product is that you cannot be upset by people turning you down or not having good things to say about your product. You can’t be a customer for everyone, so just keep grinding and showing your product to as many different buyers as possible. And take everyone’s feedback and implement it in the best way possible.
How do you encourage repeat sales? Do you demo? Use social media?
Demos are certainly an amazing way to create exposure for your products. People need to taste what you’re selling to familiarize themselves with the product, and of course these days social media is vital as well.
Where do you want your business to be in three to five years?
In 3–5 years, I hope we are on our way to scaling our business nationally and selling in many convenience stores so that everyone has access to some of our clean energy bites!
At what point did you consider your business “having made it”?
I wouldn’t consider us having made it just yet. I have much bigger plans than just having a local business. Once we are a nationally scaled brand then I’d say we made it. But stocking the New Orleans Pelicans certainly was very cool for us.
To ring in the warm weather, we are featuring a different entrepreneur making products that allow you to get outside every week! Check back in next week to hear from another Union Kitchen maker (or two!) about their philosophies, struggles, and successes.