Episode Description
SIMPLi began with one quinoa product sourced from Peru and has grown into a business spanning roughly 70 products, food service and retail, and supply chains across 13 countries. Matt Cohen, co-founder of SIMPLi, joins Anne Oudersluys to unpack how a food company can scale while protecting the farmers and the product that's at the core of it's mission
The conversation gets into the operating decisions behind that growth: why SIMPLi owns more of its supply chain, how it evaluates new products from both the farmer and consumer perspectives, and why crop rotation actually influences its product portfolio. Matt explains how the company approaches premium pricing without pushing the cost back onto farmers. He also reframes the familiar growth-versus-mission tension: the real question is whether a decision strengthens or weakens the mission.
KEY INSIGHTS
- Why SIMPLi chose to own its supply chain — and how that creates greater control over product quality and transparency
- How a COVID-era pivot from food service accelerated SIMPLi's path into retail without abandoning its original channel
- Why SIMPLi narrowed its portfolio around beans, grains, and oils — partly because those categories support crop rotation
- The two-sided product innovation model: start with consumer demand, but also look at what farmers need to grow regeneratively
- How creating markets for secondary and tertiary crops can make regenerative farming more economically viable for farmers
- Why SIMPLi sees regenerative organic certification as an operational guardrail, not simply a marketing claim
- How the company protects farmer economics while finding efficiencies in processing, packaging, and other parts of the supply chain to manage consumer pricing
- Why premium pricing has a ceiling — and how SIMPLi thinks about reaching more consumers without reducing what it pays farmers
- Matt’s shift from asking “mission or growth?” to asking whether a growth decision strengthens or weakens the mission
- How SIMPLi's Regenerative Pathway Program gives the company a framework for helping farming communities move toward organic and regenerative organic certification
- Why flavor matters as much as sustainability claims when convincing consumers to pay a premium for better agricultural practices
- Why Matt believes a strong mission should function as a decision-making filter and set guardrails for how a company grows
TIMESTAMPS
02:20 – From corporate finance to food entrepreneurship
05:31 – SIMPLi’s three operating pillars
07:21 – From one quinoa SKU to retail
10:40 – De-commoditizing commodity categories
14:00 – Why supply-chain ownership matters
17:41 – Letting customer demand shape expansion
20:51 – Innovating from the farm and the consumer
23:21 – Scaling a global supply chain
26:50 – Why regenerative organic certification
30:41 – Proving premium value through flavor
32:40 – Protecting farmer economics while managing price
36:21 – Does growth strengthen or weaken the mission?
RESOURCES & LINKS
Learn more about SIMPLi:
Connect with Anne Oudersluys and Core Impact: