BROOMFIELD, COLO.  – Since launching in late 2022, Lentiful, the company behind ready-to-eat microwavable lentils, has experienced a growth spurt fostered by winning pitch competitions and finding favor among consumers. Lentiful, founded by Ben and Brooke Bacon, won the Nosh Live Pitch Slam, the Naturally Boulder Pitch Slam as the overall and people’s choice winner, and also was a Nexty award winner.  

Recently, Lentiful added Naturally Network National 2024 Pitch Slam to its wall of winnings. The company competed against eight regional Naturally Network winners, including Daybird, the winner of Naturally Austin; Philosopher Foods, the winner of Naturally Bay Area; Evergreen, the winner of Naturally Chicago; StableFeed, the winner of Naturally Minnesota; True Moringa, the winner of Naturally New England; Whipnotic, the winner of Naturally New York; Rooted Fare, the winner of Naturally Los Angeles and Loli’s, the winner of Naturally San Diego.

Evergreen, a better-for-you frozen waffle maker, was named runner-up, and Rooted Fare, a manufacturer of Chinese-American spreads, was named audience choice, according to Naturally Network.

Ben Bacon was new to pitch competitions prior to the Nosh Live Pitch Slam. But after winning at Nosh, Bacon gained confidence to apply for his local pitch competition, Naturally Boulder. From there, the titles kept coming, along with new opportunities for the company.

“We started online with our company website, and we’ve done $1 million in sales in the last 12 months,” he said. “What that has done is it has enabled us to get to a certain scale where now it makes sense to get into stores. We’re launching into 400 Walmarts, and we just launched at Whole Foods on the West Coast last month. We’re also talking with Wegmans, Hy-Vee and Thrive Market.”  

Lentiful’s original go-to-market strategy was to “lay low and focus its presence online to make sure its product fit in the market.” Now adding retail, the company is taking the same approach and being “choosy with which retailers it agrees to,” Bacon said.

Photo: Jenna Fitch 

“Luckily, we’re in a spot where we can be a bit choosy,” he said. “We have really good visibility about what pockets in the country we do well in and what consumer bases we do well with. We’ll use all that DTC (direct-to-consumer) data to help guide our retail strategy as well.”

The company’s online consumer base has played a role in its portfolio expansion. Listening to its consumers, Lentiful expanded flavor options and added a low-sodium line, which ranges between 15 mg and 140 mg of sodium per serving.

The company launched low-sodium vegetable harvest and low-sodium tomato Bolognese in August 2023 and added cilantro lime chile and three-bean chili in April 2024.

Its classic flavors line includes Thai coconut, Mexican green chile, French mirepoix and cinnamon apple. The company added homestyle chili and pineapple chorizo to its classic line in April 2023.

“When we launched, we had four flavors, and now we’re up to 10,” Bacon said. “I never thought sodium was an issue in our classic line, which has around 400 mg. I started getting requests — well over 1,000 — from customers saying, ‘Can you drop that (sodium) a little bit more?’ I had no choice to at least try it.”

The R&D process to lower the product’s sodium involved taking the company’s classic line and taste-testing it without salt. Consumers said it was exactly what they wanted after trying the product themselves, Bacon added.

“I thought, ‘It doesn’t taste bad to me; I think it’s what consumers are looking for,’” he said. “Consumers said they could add back in the level of salt they desired or completely leave it out.”

The low-sodium line comprises more than 40% of the company’s online sales and is equal to its classic flavors line, Bacon said.

“Consumers are getting more mindful of all the salt that is in their food,” he said. “When you go to the grocery store, there’s not a lot of good packaged options that have low sodium. I’m glad we have something to offer them (consumers).”

The couple is trying to fund the company for as long as possible, which Bacon said he thinks they can do for another year or two.

“It’s really hard for companies my size to go out and do fundraising, even companies that are hot,” he said. “It’s a really hard environment right now.” 

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