The View from the Office.

I met up with Kiki Couchman, the co-founder of Beny Yogurt, at French Roast on the Upper West Side. She had the chickpea and tomato soup: I had the iconic French onion. 

Kiki recently left a four-year stint in private equity at Alpine Investors to launch a new yogurt brand with Elan Halpern, her best friend and former roommate from college.

Beny Yogurt is an organic, Greek-style yogurt aimed at the health conscious. Kiki said she became interested in yogurt when — as a Human Biology major at Stanford — she saw how bacteria in our gut affects our energy, mood and immune system. 

Aware yogurt is a crowded industry, Kiki has leveraged social media to build brand awareness. She’s used videos on Instagram to document her journey leaving PE to start the company.

Kiki shoots about 70 micro clips of 1-2 seconds that she edits down before laying over a voice narration. She said you have to be ruthless in trimming the length and disciplined in making sure that there is an arc to every story. 

It takes time, but the benefit of accruing 10,000 enthusiastic fans can be substantial, especially for a startup with limited funds for marketing, PR or advertising. 

Kiki said social media has helped her to walk into rooms and meet people who already know her story, speeding up conversations. That visibility helped facilitate a visit to a co-manufacturing plant that normally does business with larger companies.

I find her content effective for several reasons. It’s fast and informative and varied enough so it doesn’t feel repetitive. At the same time, it hews to a consistent format promoting her story as the brand ambassador 

Kiki has embraced the trend of chronicling her journey as it unfolds. Older generations – particularly Gen X – are often reluctant to talk about plans or products for fear they won’t pan out. They don’t want to take that risk. 

There are benefits to building in public, however. Kiki cited an example where she asked her followers to weigh in on a packaging decision. It’s real-time customer feedback, a kind of immediate A/B test. It provides valuable intel and also helps build customer engagement. 

If you want to know more about Beny, follow Kiki on Instagram or DM me for a warm intro.